Our final part in the trilogy of Ferrari attractions is the Museo Casa Enzo Ferrari (also known as Museo Enzo Ferrari) located in Modena. It focuses on the life and work of Enzo Ferrari, the founder of Ferrari. Located only a fifteen minute drive from the Ferrari museum both can be visited in a day. Both are run by Ferrari and joint tickets can be purchased saving a few Euro’s.
The Enzo museum is less popular than the main Ferrari museum and there is plenty of onsite parking. I will say up front that I thoroughly enjoyed this museum but don’t expect to come out of it with a deeper understanding of the man that created Ferrari. As you would expect with a museum owned by Ferrari the story of Enzo is the one that we are all familiar with and has been thoroughly vetted by the brand managers.
In many respects this museum is simply and extension of the Ferrari museum showing cars from all era’s of sports car building and racing. Some of the cars were built after Enzo’s death and are there to promote the one off Ferrari builds.
The museum comprises two separate buildings, a former house and workshop that belonged to Enzo’s father, and a new building designed by the architectural practice Future Systems.
The main gallery was opened on the 10th March 2012 and provides 6,000 square metres (65,000 sq ft) in a single large gallery space. It is inspired by the rear engine cover of a classic racing car which is difficult to appreciate without an ariel view. The curators have avoided the mistake of cramming as many cars as possible into the space. Instead each car is set on a plinth and is surrounded by plenty of open space. Perfect for the enthusiast to stand back and admire the beauty of the design. In the background Italian Opera plays subtly, not intruding but adding to the experience. The whole experience is really quite breathtaking.
The gallery slopes down from the entrance and follows broadly chronological order of cars ending with the latest one off design commissions. I won’t list each car, I’ll let you discover them in the gallery below (click on the image to see it in full).
Once you have satisfied yourself in the main gallery (it may take a couple of tours) you head outside to the original Ferrari house. To be clear, this is not the home from which Enzo masterminded the creation of Ferrari. It is the house where he was born on February 18th 1898 and where he lived in until his early 20’s. I found this area to be disappointing. The building has been gutted and the inside opens up to two stories). It looks like the curators ran out of ideas and so there is an F1 car on display along with some fairly uninspiring road cars and a large collection of engines. There is also a recreation of Enzo’s office at the Ferrari factory and some interesting pictures.
Inevitably you exit through the gift shop where you can purchase all manner of products bearing the prancing horse for a hefty price tag.
I absolutely recommend this museum if you are a Ferrari fan or have an interest in automotive design. If you want to understand Enzo more deeply I would recommend the book: Enzo Ferrari: The man and machine, by Brock Yates.
