Day 7 –Florence/Venice - Thursday, January 9th 2014: Linda Vining

 The Ferrari Dream

We're learning about many of the greatest thinkers/planners of Italy, both ancient and modern, and how despite adversity and obstacles, they never gave up dreaming.

Mind you, they had to revise their plans and make huge concessions to achieve their goals.

One that comes to mind from yesterday's tour is Enzo Ferrari. We visited the magnificent architecture-designed Ferrari museum - red racing machines everywhere, pictures of champions and walls lined with handsome trophies all set to loud evocative music. The kids were so excited. For AUD$50 they could ride for 7 mins in a Ferrari simulator. A number of boys spent the money and what fun they had. I guess it' the closest they will ever come to driving a Ferrari, so well worth the cost.

Anyway, back to Enzo . He had 2 sons. Dino died at a young age and his oldest son is now Vice President. Enzo is gone, but to keep the dream alive when financial woes overtook the family business he had to sell his beloved company to Fiat. I bet that was hard and soul searching.

Today the company is booming and is a monument to Italian enterprise and style.

I didn't think I'd enjoy a stop at a car factory, but it turned out to be an inspiration.

The writing on the wall said . . .

"We don' sell cars we sell dreams."


Dr Linda Vining
St Paul's College Board