Fast boats and fast cars
For our last day in Venice we decided to hit the water and get the local ferry down the Grand Canal, then across to Murano and Burano islands before returning.
Murano is famous for glass blowing and we had seen many examples in Venice (and in Melbourne). Murano is similar to Venice in that it has canals, but the buildings are not as tall, nor are the canals as skinny. We didn't think much of Murano though as the buildings were fairly plain and it seemed difficult to head off the main drag. We didn't buy anything as they were either hugely overpriced or just not very nice.
Burano is known for it's lace work and again is centred around canals. The buildings here were quite nice though and were painted in bright colors. There was also grass, which you don't see in Murano or Venice.
Our return to Venice took over an hour on the boat, so it was fairly late and we wandered slowly back to the buses, stopping to have a meal on some outside tables and do some people watching.
Sunday was all about me :). We left Venice and headed to Maranello, home of Ferrari, arriving about 1:00pm. Once there we had lunch then went into the Ferrari Museum. The museum had a collection of racing and road cars and a few one off cars that had been designed by rich customers.
There was a La Ferrari, but it was in a darkened room that would occasionally have some bright lights as an engine sound track roared. It was a bit hard to get a good look at it so I was pleased I had seen one in Germany (see my "What's a man to do" post for more detail). There was an F1 simulator there is similar to that used by the Formula 1 team. It was an extra cost but I had to have a go. It was quite difficult and you got a lot of feedback through the steering wheel (shaking around) and the whole body work moved from left to right. At the end though I had the fastest time for the week and third fastest on the leaderboard. :)
Outside there were two companies offering drives of various Ferrari cars but at 300 Euros ($440AU) for 30 minutes in the car I would have most liked to drive, I couldn't justify it.
We then drove to Florence via Sant Agata, where Lamborghini's are made, but stopped only briefly as their museum was shut. The drive to Florence took us over the Apennine Mountain range, not quite as high as some others, but lots of twists and turns and some pretty villages and views. We arrived in Florence around 6:30pm, having spent about 6 hours driving.
Murano is famous for glass blowing and we had seen many examples in Venice (and in Melbourne). Murano is similar to Venice in that it has canals, but the buildings are not as tall, nor are the canals as skinny. We didn't think much of Murano though as the buildings were fairly plain and it seemed difficult to head off the main drag. We didn't buy anything as they were either hugely overpriced or just not very nice.
Burano is known for it's lace work and again is centred around canals. The buildings here were quite nice though and were painted in bright colors. There was also grass, which you don't see in Murano or Venice.
Our return to Venice took over an hour on the boat, so it was fairly late and we wandered slowly back to the buses, stopping to have a meal on some outside tables and do some people watching.
Sunday was all about me :). We left Venice and headed to Maranello, home of Ferrari, arriving about 1:00pm. Once there we had lunch then went into the Ferrari Museum. The museum had a collection of racing and road cars and a few one off cars that had been designed by rich customers.
There was a La Ferrari, but it was in a darkened room that would occasionally have some bright lights as an engine sound track roared. It was a bit hard to get a good look at it so I was pleased I had seen one in Germany (see my "What's a man to do" post for more detail). There was an F1 simulator there is similar to that used by the Formula 1 team. It was an extra cost but I had to have a go. It was quite difficult and you got a lot of feedback through the steering wheel (shaking around) and the whole body work moved from left to right. At the end though I had the fastest time for the week and third fastest on the leaderboard. :)
Outside there were two companies offering drives of various Ferrari cars but at 300 Euros ($440AU) for 30 minutes in the car I would have most liked to drive, I couldn't justify it.
We then drove to Florence via Sant Agata, where Lamborghini's are made, but stopped only briefly as their museum was shut. The drive to Florence took us over the Apennine Mountain range, not quite as high as some others, but lots of twists and turns and some pretty villages and views. We arrived in Florence around 6:30pm, having spent about 6 hours driving.
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