20 April 2009

The 20 of April 2009 marked the official opening of the site in Modena for the Museo Enzo Ferrari. Quite an historical date to say the least. Almost 5 years before this date Jan and I flew to Modena for the first time, to visit the competition site in a very hot day in July. The light and the sun were so bright that we stopped at a petrol station along the A1 motorway to buy a pair of cheap, oversized sunglasses. I wish I took a picture of the two of us on that day as we looked everything but credible with those glasses. We never though to win that competition, but we were already dreaming of a new, exciting, unique car museum in Modena, even before getting to the site. Finding the site was actually quite a feat, as no living soul was outside at 13.35 pm, 34 degree Celsius. Even those people we manage to bump into never heard of the Enzo Ferrari House. They all knew who he was but the house where the legend was born was just unknown quantity. Five years later, on the 20 of April 2009 around 200 invited public personalities and thousand of citizens from the town attended the construction site’s opening ceremony. I really wished Jan could see this day, after so many battles, defeats and difficult moments that accompanied the design of this project. I wish he could see the crowd, the faces and the site with its yellow cranes and yellow carpet for its guests. But Jan was there. His hand, his intellect and his creativity were there, intimately represented in the foundation stone. The stone’s sketch that he had handed over me two years ago turned eventually into reality. A stone made of aluminium of course, Jan’s favourite material and the very same substance that was used to build most of the vintage Ferrari’s racing cars. The unveiling of the stone marked solemnly the beginning of this adventure.