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It wasn't as hard to get up in the morning as I thought it would be after such a long day and very little shut-eye. My alarm rang out on the Treo and I was pretty much ready to get moving. I headed down to the complementary breakfast, what a spread!
Italians sure know how to eat! I took my time sipping a capaccino and headed over for the tour. Actually I arrived 5 minutes late ("za tipicol american, no?") and the tour had left without me (!), so I never actually got told the rules, which apparently includes RULE #1.
RULE #1: No cameras
They put me on the Ferrari red bus with the italian speaking tour and shouted into walky talkies about "the american..." "the american...". After entering the main part of the factory they synced me up with the english speaking tour, who were waiting for me. I was holding a small camera in my hand when I synced up with them and immediately one of my fellow tour mates ratted me out and started screaming "he's got a camera, he's got a camera". The tour guide couldn't be bothered but I put that camera away to shut Poindexter up, and I promptly pulled out another one (my cellphone). I mentally made a note to have Poindexter pose for a shot with me later in front of Romeo&Juliet (the couple of valve seating robots that uses liquid nitrogen), but the rat slithered away before I could trap him. haha. I did shoot some video of R&J though. Hell, if it's been on National Geographic, I don't think it's a company secret. I later fessed up to one of the others, as I was snapping a shot, and she said something to the effect that she just thought I was some jerk who "was checking text messages during the tour" (which I was also doing, btw).
The tour was pretty neat. The robots involved in engine assembly were impressive to me, as were the painting process, and the leather interior assembly (all women working there).
As we moved around, numerous Ferraris could be spotted and heard darting around the internal factory roads and parking lots at a respectable speed and RPM. We spotted black test-mule car a couple times, which was rumored to be one of the upcoming "Dino" baby ferraris. I was not able to get a picture before it was out of view.
After the tour, other members of the tour who were following the rules were returned their cameras. A guy outside was taking delivery of his 430.
And it was lunchtime, so the factory emptied out into the street. Most of the employees went into a building behind Restaurante Cavallino.
I spent the rest of the day soaking up Maranello. The shops, the test track. A Ferrari F1 car was on the track (mostly when I was out of seeing distance), but I did grab some video.
There was plenty of F1 noise to go around though, as the engines run on a dyno/simulator in a building between Planet Hotel and Fiorano pretty much nonstop during the day. It took me a second to figure it out but you can clearly hear an F1 car going up and down through the gears, but they are not moving and there's no doppler effect.
I attempted to find a crappy Italian wine, but even a 1.5 Euro bottle was extremely good.
That night I had dinner at Montana's, near the test track, where the F1 team eats regularly. I didn't spot anyone I recognized (although a few distinguished looking gentlemen had me thinking "I bet you're someone famous that I don't recognize...")
My good friend Dennis had advised me to tell the waiter to feed me, without overly constraining the menu choices. This was great advice. The food kept coming and it was superb.
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