Galleria Ferrari- Maranello, Italy

We drove two hours from our house down to the Galleria Ferrari in Maranello. It was mostly Autostrada all the way so it wasn't too bad of a drive. As you pull into Maranello the HUGE Ferrari factory is right in front of you. Seriously the whole town is Ferrari. There are Ferrari workers walking everywhere in their trademark red uniforms and jumpsuits!!!
There are Ferraris driving on the streets, the symbol is all over the place. We parked and seriously had not been out of the car more than a minute when the go-getters swooped in. "Want to test drive a Ferrari?"
Why yes I would, but I don't want to pay your insane fees and if I do test drive one I want to be on a track!!!! I would not enjoy myself driving around the streets of Maranello wondering if a random Italian was going to smash into me at any second.
The Galleria was great, however I will say that I expected more cars. I also expected there to be some place that you could sit in a Ferrari and check it out, or have your picture taken and there wasn't.
We had some lunch at the cafe, a coffee and then spent about 1.5 hours wandering around the Galleria.Worth a visit if you're a Ferrari fan :)

One of the old school ones!

World Champion in the 50's

They were so different looking!!!

Me being artistic! It had every model of Ferrari race car from the beginning to present.

More artsy stuff :)

In the Ferrari "pit" area of the museum

Ferrari Pit Stop

Cars and the track picture at the end of the room

The Control Station

Lynn and Reese checking it out

More race cars!!

The inside of the fuel injection system(at least that's what Richard #2 told me it was, I would have no idea!!)

GO CANADA GO!!!!! Kind of cool that Gilles Villeneuve's car was there :)

LOVE- So awesome

Seriously I just wanted to jump in one!!!!

This is the size of the Ferrari factory compared to the town, it was GIGANTIC

The Hall of Fame-Ferrari style

Yeah...they had a lot of trophies :)

It was a really crazy set up, the sayings on the screens kept changing. The one I liked said
"We don't sell cars, we sell dreams"

artsy pic

You all know it, you might not all love it though :)

The newer cars gallery

All I could focus on with this car was the awful seat covers...I know, such a girl ;)

I would however gladly take this one, even if it had ugly seat covers!!!!!! I think this was my second choice car :)

Wind tunnel model car

Not entirely sure what this was on, but I liked it.

I like this old one too!!!

and now my #1 Choice :) The Enzo. It was beautiful, I wish I could have one!!!!

I wasn't too sure about this one, its a totally different style than the rest. the 599X I think?

All the colours you can get your Ferrari in, with interior color choice too.

 Dear Santa: I would like a Ferrari Enzo in this red color please, but with a dark grey interior. That's right, I'm picky.

Reese-safely contained in her stroller so she didn't do something truly spectacular like key one of the Ferraris or knock something into one of them. Which would have been HORRIFIC. So she was safely in her stroller the entire trip!!!!!

Yup, I'm not quite kissing it since the signs say do not touch and the security guard was watching quite closely........Those two guys are like oh my god what is that chick doing!?!?! I think the red looks quite  good near me......Ahhhh just imagine how great it would be if I was actually IN the car!!! hahahaha

The statue  of Ferrari outside the Galleria...no security guards, so we get me in one of my "non-traditional" tourist pictures!!! hahaha

Yeah Reese wasn't as excited about the car as I was :)

Milano!!!!!!

So the first lot of pictures are of the Duomo in the centre of Milan. You come up from the metro and are greeted by the first picture as a view. Its pretty breathtaking!!!! Guide books call Milan's Duomo "ridiculously gothic", "insanely overdone" and "absolutely magnificent!!" I thought it was pretty amazing myself!!! We didn't go inside this weekend because the line was insane, we'll go inside once the tourist season dies down!!!

The archway is the Galleria, which is a covered walk that is like a mall now and has these INSANE marble floors and high domed ceilings. It used to be the "place to be seen" if you were in court in Milan back in the day. Its still the "place to be seen" because all of the high end shops are in or near it.

Ahhhh Europe and its sidewalk cafes, I LOVE it!! Apparently these ones near the Galleria and the Duomo are great for people watching.

HOME OF.....

Ok so Richard and I were HYSTERICAL over these next pictures, you get to this big cross section in the Galleria and there is the first three stores which I took pictures of..big names, lots of security(the third one is a big watch/jewellery store.....and you'd expect the fourth to be......Armani, Versace, Dolce and Gabbana....they had numerous ones to choose from!!!!!!!

BUT the fourth store in the circle is.....................

Oh yes I'm serious....McDonalds. They are freaking everywhere!!!! Even in the illustrious circle in the beautiful Galleria!!!!

Statue of Leonardo Davinchi, and the La Scala Opera House, which we're really hoping to go see a performance at!

Random alley, you know how I like my alley pictures!!! The next series of shots was just this place we passed while wandering around, we looked in these big doors and there was this courtyard!

Eating at a sidewalk cafe. We had a little "Oh my god" "MIO DIO!" moment when we realized that we weren't on vacation, that this was where we were living for a while!!!!!! I ADORE Europe!!!!!

Reese checking out the pigeons, they are everywhere here and she finds them totally fascinating!!!

Oh no the pigeons flew away!!!! The street that the cafe was on.

Little apartments above the cafe and our margharita pizza!!! SO YUMMY!

I'm in love with this picture!!!! Birds sitting on a wire in the street where the cafe was :)