Sightseeing in Emilia-Romagna

Sightseeing in Emilia-Romagna, as this page sells it, means the Motor Valley, and mostly Lamborghini. Ferruccio Lamborghini made tractors from 1948. In 1962 he visited Don Eduardo Miura's bull ranch near Seville and came home with a raging bull for an emblem; the car company followed in 1963 at Sant'Agata Bolognese, the Miura in 1966, the Countach in 1974. The factory museum runs from the 350 GT to the hybrid Sian and Countach LPI 800-4. Ferruccio's own story has a separate museum at Funo di Argelato, set up in 2014 in a former Lamborghini factory: his personal Miura SV, Jarama, Urraco and Espada, the tractors, and prototypes that include a helicopter and an offshore powerboat.

Emilia-Romagna sightseeing tours are tickets rather than excursions. A plain entry takes about 90 minutes at the factory museum, with a time that is not binding; a guided visit takes an hour, and the two-hour version walks through the Factory 4.0 line, where guided vehicles and collaborative robots build the cars. The Ferruccio museum is 50 minutes on its own or two hours as a pair. Combos add the Ferrari museum in Maranello, about 40 km from Sant'Agata, or the Modena museum devoted to Enzo Ferrari. A two-day pass covers both Lamborghini museums first, then Ducati and both Ferrari museums in any order. The simulator ticket, for ages 8 and up, gives ten minutes in the seat, seven of them driving.

Practical. Guided and factory tours are non-refundable, while plain entries and combos refund until 24 or 48 hours before. The language of a guided slot depends on the weekday and hour, so check it before choosing. On the plain around Bologna and Modena, July highs reach 31C and January highs 7C, so the museums are comfortable in both seasons. Travel between museums is yours to arrange, and the factory tour takes children from 6.