Enzo Ferrari once said if you ask someone to draw a fast car they’ll colour it red. Certainly it’s a theory that seems to hold true for the designers of very fast Italian cars and motorbikes.

Lately we’ve been indulging Greg’s passion for speed and sleek mechanical beauty with visits to the homes of Ferrari, Lamborghini and Ducati. World leaders in design and performance, these Italian icons draw the faithful to them as surely as any great cathedral.

Each one has a museum of classic machines where devotees trace the stories of humble beginnings, early breakthroughs and ultimate successes. And then they gather in the factories to watch current models roll off high-tech production lines. For many it’s awe-inspiring … for most it’s buy-aspiring.

It is hard not to be impressed when you’re surrounded by fabulous cars (many of which are one-off custom models) and incredibly powerful motorbikes (which you’ve seen in MotoGP races on TV). Greg loved it – and I really enjoyed it too – and we ended up spending a couple of hours in each of the three locations.

There were too many highlights to include them all, so here are just a few:

  • watching the first ignition of a new Ducati Monster 797 (10 hours to put one of these bikes together from zero to go)
  • also at Ducati, seeing (and touching) the machine that Casey Stoner rode to victory in the 2007 world championship
  • at Lamborghini, the Ayrton Senna exhibition (including that brilliant documentary on his life and death playing on continuous loop), and
  • the limited edition ’68 Dino Ferrari (the model owned by Eric Clapton among few others, still stylish and totally desirable)

In the end, and only after much deliberation, Greg decided a Ferrari 488 GTB would next fill that empty space in the garage back at home – a red 488 GTB, of course. Hmm … my response to that idea? Forse – o forse no.