Motor Cities: Modena

Modena is the world’s most exciting motor city. No other place on Earth makes cars that so electrify the senses. Nor has any other city such a concentration of emotive car names and racing heritage. It also has the best food and serves the best coffee.

Maranello, home to the greatest sports car badge of them all, is barely 10 miles south, or just a 30-minute drive away (although a Ferrari test driver will do it much faster). Enzo Ferrari was born in Modena and lived there nearly all his life.

But as with Stuttgart, the last city to feature in this series, we need slightly to expand our area of influence. The area now known as Motor Valley, the performance car epicentre of the world, runs from Modena – its capital – south to Maranello, and then southeast to Bologna, barely 30 miles distant.