Museums in Bologna and Modena

Last Tuesday we drove to Bologna and Modena to visit museums. On our way we followed a Ferrari, briefly.

It takes about 1.5 hours to drive to Bologna. I got bored so I took a picture of myself. Since I am the major picture taker there are few of me.

Our first stop was the Museum of Industrial Heritage located on the outskirts of Bologna. We arrived at 12 and closing was at 1 pm so it was a quick visit. The museum is located in an old factory building where they fired bricks and terracotta architectural pieces. The old kiln is still part of the ground floor.

I gave the camera to Dom and so I took very few. The fascinating thing we learned was that Bologna was a major center of silk production in the 15th Century. The city had an extensive network of canals that powered all sorts of machinery for processing the silk thread. The city was heavily industrialized with many factories long before the beginning of the industrial revolution.

The museum most of the top floor devoted to exhibits about the silk industry with lots of models and great information in both Italian and English.

One of the old canals runs alongside the museum parking lot.

Other parts of the museum covered all sorts of industrial machinery that was developed in Bologna including things like tortelloni machines, food wrapping machines, printing presses, and all sorts of other things. True to its role as a forerunner in industrialization, Bologna has always been a leader in developing mechanization. This includes being the heart of Italy's automobile and motorcycle industry.

Of course there were some examples of this.

There were even some examples of toys produced by a local toy company.

At closing time we left this museum and headed to the Lamborghini factory which is located between Bologna and Modena. We had a nice lunch across from the factory. When we drove in to visit the museum we were informed that it was closed for the afternoon for a private function. Oh well!

We continued on to our third destination--the newish Enzo Ferrari Museum in Modena. We have visited the Ferrari museum in Maranello several times but this was our first visit to this one. It is located at the house where Enzo Ferrari was born and where his family had its business. He actually sold the building in order to finance his racing career.

A HUGE modern building has been built alongside the old house. There are exhibits in both buildings and they are striking contrasts in architectural style.

The older building has exhibits about Enzo Ferrari's life and quite a bit of racing memorabilia including steering wheels, goggles and helmet screens, trophies, and a re-creation of his Maranello office.

The futuristic gallery has exhibits about the history of the Ferrari companies and automobile racing in Italy. There are also quite a few historic vehicles.

There is a multimedia show on one wall that is going all the time accompanied by opera selections.

The car below is one we had never seen. It is an "Uovo" (egg). A description is below.

Below is an "Enzo." It looks futuristic with its batwing doors but is actually about ten years old.

Below is a wood "mold" that is used to shape the bodies of cars. It is displayed against the wall.

Ferrari also built boats for a while (anything to pay the bills!). Here is a beautiful hydroplane.

I was fascinated by the flat head screws that held the boat together.

It was a fun day. We will have to return to the Lamborghini museum another time.