What a day!!!!!!!!

Thursday...

I don't know if my words and photos are going to be enough to describe this day but I will try... As I said in my last post this is an early 40th birthday present from the White House gang... I love you guys...

Well full of excitement I joined the group becoming the seventh member (everyone of us was from Australia) and we hit the road to begin our tour... first stop Lamborghini museum.

The Lamborghini company first begun as a tractor building company, they have come a long way from tractors but in some ways especially with the engines you are able to see those humble beginnings.

Next stop was a private collection owned by the Pannini family, the Pannini family made their fortune in trading "baseball" cards and what a fortune it must be because this collection is colossal.

A large part of the collection was bought direct from Maserati, when the company was sold in the 90's but the collection is not just limited to Maserati, other classic cars and  a large collection of bikes.

Next stop was the one place that I wanted to be, I said that Paris made me feel like a child on Christmas morning, well this place had me feeling like every Christmas had come at once... the Galleria Ferrari.

We sat and had lunch at the cafeteria (next to workers sitting in their Ferrari uniforms)... time seem to slow as I waited for lunch to be over... I was so close.

Eventually (it had felt like forever but now time seem to be going so fast) we made our way in to the Galleria, Ferrari racing cars sat in front of me, I could walk around them, I could touch them... they were right there.

Looking at the distant past cars was wonderful but anyone who knows me knows which car I was there to see... Michael Schumacher's cars.

To stand beside his cars was simply breath taking, the beauty of the cars, the history of the cars and knowing that I had seen the man himself race these cars to World Championships.... I can not explain how I felt.

Ferrari started as a way to finance the racing cars and not the other way around and you are able to see that from their design...

The road cars, though simply stunning are not as breath taking as the race cars...

After seeing such beauty it was time to experience it... I drove a Ferrari California, a beautiful red (is there any other colour) convertible...

I was so very nervous, I had never driven a left-hand drive, never driven a Ferrari and never driven a Ferrari and here I was about to do them all.

I had to sign a contract, if I was to damage a rim or tyre I had to pay a thousand euro and god forbid if I was to crash I had to pay three thousand euro, but it would not had matter if it was thirty thousand euro I was not going to miss this chance.

After a shaky start where I automatically went to the left hand side of the road, we were away. My "instructor" was great and when we were on an open piece of road instructed me to "push, push...". I had some concerns when seeing 70kph speed signs and I was hitting 100 but he told me to "push, push..." so I did. Top speed I hit was 170 but the car still had so much more to give.

It was a pleasure to drive and I could not help but show that, which my instructor loved.

There is a video of my driving but inside the case it comes with the warning... Before publishing any video on internet, we advice you to check you didn't break the highway code laws. Otherwise, under request by the police, we'll be obliged to supply them with your personal datas and to ask you to pay the relative administration fees.... so it is not going on here.

After all the excitement I would have been happy to go home but our tour was not complete and we set off for the Ducati factory and museum.

We toured the factory floor and it was very interesting to see the bikes coming together.

You think of motorbikes and you really don't think too much about how they have developed over the years... there are two wheels, a seat, frame, handle bars, engine... but walking around the museum and looking at the history of Ducati it is amazing how they have changed over the years.

It was great to see the racing bikes and just like Ferrari you can see that is what this company is there for (though they started making sewing machines and cameras). It was also great to see the small Aussie touches that have been added to the bikes by the Australian riders.

It was a brilliant day and I am so lucky to have such amazing friends... it was the best present!