A Visit to the Museo Ferrari: The Ultimate Ferrari Museum

February 26, 2009 · Updated September 2026 · BootsnAll

Which is the more Italian car, Ferrari or Lamborghini?

Plenty of people are more qualified to answer than I am, but for my money (which will never add up to either one, even though Ferrari only ranks fourth among Italy’s most expensive cars) the answer is Ferrari. A Ferrari is Italy as a car: flashy, gorgeous, loud, and far more fashionable than I’ll ever be. So although I’m no car person, I completely understand why the Ferrari Museum in Maranello is on so many travelers’ lists.

>> Skip the photos and go straight to how to get to the Museo Ferrari or the visitor information.

Two Ferrari museums, and which one to pick

Ferrari now runs two museums about 20 km apart, and it helps to know the difference before you plan.

Museo Ferrari, Maranello. This is the one on this page, the museum that used to be called the Galleria Ferrari. It sits about 300 meters from the factory in the small town where Ferrari has built its cars since the 1940s, and it’s about racing, road cars and technology.
Museo Enzo Ferrari, Modena. Built around the house where Enzo Ferrari was born, a short walk from Modena station. It’s more about the man, his life and the design history.

If you only have time for one and you care about Formula 1, go to Maranello. If you’re traveling by train and short on time, Modena is easier. The Ferrari Museums Pass covers both within 48 hours for about 38 euros in 2026, and a museum shuttle bus links them with Modena station, so seeing both in one day is realistic.

What’s inside the Museo Ferrari

The museum opened in February 1990. The town of Maranello ran it for the first five years, then Ferrari took over in 1995. A new wing opened in October 2004, bringing the space to about 2,500 square meters, and around 180,000 people visit each year.

During a 2004 trip to Italy, the husband insisted on a stop here, and since he was driving the rental car, I went along for the ride. My photos are from that visit, when the new wing was still being finished, so the museum looks different now. (Forgive the quality, too: these are scans of prints from my pre-digital days.)

Expect around 40 cars on show at any time, mixing road cars and racing cars, plus trophies, historic photographs, engines and the kind of technical detail that shows how inventions moved from the track to the road. The collection rotates, and Ferrari stages themed exhibitions, so a car you saw on one visit may be gone the next. In 2019, for example, the museum marked Michael Schumacher’s 50th birthday with a hall of the Formula 1 cars he drove for Ferrari, from the F310 of 1996 to the 248 F1 of 2006.

Cars that were on display when I went, and that turn up regularly, include:

250 TR (1957)
250 GT California (1957)
246 F1 (1958)
250 GTO (1962)
275 GTB/4 (1966)
365 GTS/4 Daytona (1968)
312 T4 (1979)
F399 (1999)
Enzo Ferrari (2002)

If the husband’s reaction is typical of car people (and I think it is), they will understand every car in the building. And if you, like me, think they’re all just “pretty red cars,” that’s fine too.

The factory and the test track

Unlike the Lamborghini Museum in nearby Sant’Agata Bolognese, where a factory tour starts at the museum door, the Ferrari factory is not open to the general public. You’ll see it from the outside, and around lunchtime you may spot workers in red walking between buildings. What Maranello has that Sant’Agata doesn’t is the Fiorano test track just northwest of the museum. If you’re lucky, you’ll hear a car being put through its paces while you’re in town.

How to Get to the Museo Ferrari

Without a car, take the train to Modena, a short regional ride from Bologna on the main line toward Milan, and use the Ferrari museums shuttle bus from the station. It runs for museum visitors only, about every hour and a half, and you pay the driver. Check the current times and fares on the Ferrari museums site and book the shuttle with your tickets, because the timetable decides how long you get in Maranello.

With a car, Maranello is about 20 minutes’ drive south of Modena. Leave the A1 motorway at Modena Nord or Modena Sud and follow the signs for Maranello, then for the museum on Via Alfredo Dino Ferrari. On our 2004 trip we drove through Maranello three times before a gas station attendant pointed us down a street we’d already tried, so trust your GPS over your instincts. The museum has its own parking.

Maranello makes an easy pairing with the Lamborghini museum, under an hour away, and with an evening in Bologna or Modena for dinner.

Address: Via Alfredo Dino Ferrari 43, 41053 Maranello

Hours and tickets: The museum opens daily. Single tickets are priced by season, so check current hours and prices on the official Ferrari museums website and book there. The Ferrari Museums Pass for Maranello plus the Museo Enzo Ferrari in Modena cost about 38 euros in 2026, used within 48 hours.

>> See more photos from the Museo Ferrari (from another 2004 visit) on Countries Beginning with I.