MODENA

After touring Northern Italy at length in early 2019, we returned motivated, to make our dream to move to Western Europe a reality!

We chose Modena, for its history and culture, its food, its pleasant weather, kind and patient people, and (of course!) its location at the nexus of what Italians call “Motor Valley”, due to the longtime presence of Ferrari, Maserati, Lamborghini, Stanguellini, Pagani, and hundreds of automotive manufacturers and artisans in the region. (Long time friends will recall my Maserati fandom and ownership.)

Rather than move to the countryside, as most expats seem to do, we chose to purchase and renovate an industrial loft a ten-minute walk from the central train station and 15 minutes from the historic Old City. It’s a two-level property, with our living space on the upper level, and my workshop below. The shop is roughly twice the size of my shop in California.

Aside from the roughly four months it took us to relocate during the darkest time of the initial COVID-19 pandemic, and then to get my workshop up and running, STUDIO CALIFORNIA has been operating at full capacity, and I’m completing projects for clients all over Spherical Planet Earth. In other words, although our lives have relocated and undergone major positive changes thanks to geography and culture, business is as usual.

I took all of the photos below using my iPhone 11 Pro Max:

This is one corner of the interior of the Duomo of Modena (begun 1184, finished 1319). It’s a 15 minute walk from our loft.

The Enzo Ferrari birthplace and Museum, also a 15 minute walk away.

The family-owned Stanguellini Museum, a 10-minute drive across town.

MODENA SCENES

A MAIN STREET IN THE OLD CITY AREA

PORTICOS ARE A TYPICAL FEATURE OVER THE SIDEWALKS

ANOTHER TYPICAL OLD CITY STREET

THE SEAFOOD DEPARTMENT AT OUR LOCAL IPERMARKET

DAY AND WEEKEND TRAVELS

Venice, you may ask? Yes— A 10-minute walk to the train station, and 2-hour high-speed “Frecciarossa” train ride away.

Bologna is less than a half-hour by train. Milan and Florence are a bit over an hour distant, Rome is 2 hours, and Trieste is a tad over 3. Koper, Slovenia, a gorgeous 1500-year-old resort city on the Adriatic, is a 15-minute cab ride from Trieste.

Brussels is a 2 1/2 hour plane flight from Bologna International Airport, and Maastricht, Netherlands is one hour from Brussels by rented car. From Brussels you can be in France in 90 minutes by TGV train.

Whereas we drove about 1200 miles per month in California, here we drive less than 50 per week on average! Our longest drives have been to Bologna airport (24 miles) to pick up guests.

We take the train nearly everywhere at super-reasonable ticket prices.

BOLOGNA HAS INCREDIBLE FOOD! THIS IS A SANDWICH SHOP NEAR THE TRAIN STATION

THE DUOMO IN FLORENCE

FLORENCE: THE RIVER ARNO AND THE PONTE VECCHIA, AS SEEN FROM THE UFFIZI GALLERY

OFF THE BEATEN TRACK IN VENICE

BRUSSELS: STADHUIS (STATE HOUSE)

MAASTRICHT, NETHERLANDS

A BACK STREET IN KOPER, SLOVENIA

FANTASTIC SEAFOOD RESTAURANT IN MILAN

MID-MAY, I ADDED A “NEW “ VEHICLE TO THE STABLE, AND THIS 1988 LOTUS SUPER SEVEN IS IT. 1600CC FORD “KENT” ENGINE WITH FORMULA FORD HEAD, TWIN WEBER 40 DCOEs, 4-SPEED, AND 125HP. BIG DEAL, YOU SAY? IT WEIGHS LESS THAN 900 POUNDS…IT WAS AN IMPULSE BUY THAT TOOK 5 MONTHS TO NEGOTIATE AND CLOSE. ONLY 23K MILES! NEXT UP: UPHOLSTERY TO MATCH.

WE’RE UP TO FOUR CARS NOW…THE OTHER THREE ARE: TWO JAGUARS (A 2003 BRG “X” TYPE 2.0L 5 SPEED WITH 44K, GAS MILEAGE SPECIAL), A 2006 “S” TYPE R WITH 420 HP, SUPERCHARGED, AND THE MASERATI QUATTROPORTE GTS THAT SOME OF YOU HAVE BEEN FOLLOWING MY COMPLAINTS WITH SHIPPING AND REGISTERING (IT’S LEGAL NOW!) THEN THERE’S THE 1995 DUCATI 900SS (NOT YET LEGAL).

THESE VEHICLES ARE ALL BEAUTIES IN THEIR OWN RIGHT, AND SOON WILL HAVE THEIR OWN PAGE. I PROMISE, JUST ONE.

Y’KNOW, A FEW YEARS BACK WHILE WE WERE STILL IN CALIFORNIA, I PUT A DEPOSIT ON A TESLA MODEL 3 AS A BACKSTOP AND TRIAL THING. THREE MONTHS LATER, I SAW ONE IN PERSON. IT WAS FINISHED IN A VERY UNFLATTERING SHADE OF MID-BLUE. I PARKED THE MASERATI AND WENT FOR A LOOK.

THAT CAR—IRRESPECTIVE OF THE RAVES OF ALL THE FANBOYS AND SOME PUBLICATIONS, THE PERFORMANCE (MAIN REASON!), HAS THE GODDAMNED UGLIEST, PLAINEST, MOST BORING, APPLIANCE-LIKE MOLDED PLASTIC INTERIOR THAT I’D SEEN ON A CAR SINCE THE PONTIAC SOLSTICE OF SOME YEARS BACK. THAT MULTI-GRAY INTERIOR COMPLETELY TURNED ME OFF AND I CANCELED MY ORDER THE NEXT DAY. NO THANKS, TESLA…NO THANKS.