Experience
Two supply chains, one plain
Four days in the same stretch of the Po plain, where two industries with nothing in common were born, engines and food, and where both solved the same problem the same way: turning a geographical limitation into a name that sells for more.
On this page
On this experience you walk into a working factory. In the catalog beyond two days there are few.
Fact sheet
- Days
- 4
- Cities
- Bologna, Modena, Maranello, Parma
- Recommended season
- February to November
- Group
- 15 to 20 participants
- Language of the visits
- confirmed at the time of booking, site by site
- Schengen days used
- 4 out of 90, counting the day of entry and the day of exit
- Price
- Quotation on request
→ Request a quotation · Download the itinerary in PDF
In the quotation we write which sites are confirmed and which are being confirmed, one by one.
Itinerary day by day
Day 1 — Bologna. Inside a working factory
In the morning, the Ducati Museum and factory tour, in Borgo Panigale. The museum tells a century of racing; the factory tour walks into the plant where the motorcycles are assembled today. It is one of the very few visits in the catalog where you cross a live production line, and the difference from a company museum is felt in the first five minutes. Online booking is compulsory.
In the afternoon, a two-hour working session. The question is a single one and is answered in writing: how many of the operations seen that morning are done by a machine, how many by a person, and why the company decided it that way in each case.
Day 2 — Maranello and Modena. The price of a name
In the morning, the Ferrari Museum in Maranello. You go in as a group, up to twenty people, at booked times. It is a museum, not a plant, and we say so beforehand: anyone expecting the assembly line leaves disappointed, and not through their own fault.
In the afternoon, Pagani. The visit is by compulsory booking and starts at a minimum of fifteen people, which makes this route suitable for a group and not for two curious visitors. You look at a company that produces very few units a year and that built its whole model on that scarcity.
In the evening, transfer towards Parma.
Day 3 — Parma. When the name belongs to a territory and not to a company
In the morning, the Musei del cibo of the province of Parma. They are a network of museums each devoted to one product, and they serve a precise question: what happens when the brand belongs not to a company but to a consortium of companies that compete with one another.
In the afternoon, the Archivio Storico Barilla. A company archive with a century of advertising, packaging and strategy shifts inside it. You work on the way a company told four different generations about the same product.
Day 4 — The comparison and the closing
In the morning, team work. Engines and food are compared on four lines: who owns the name, who controls quality, who sets the price, who gets into the chain and who cannot.
In the afternoon, eight-minute presentations and discussion.
What you visit
| Place | What it is | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Ducati Museum and factory tour, Bologna | Company museum plus a visit to the working plant | Bookable |
| Ferrari Museum, Maranello | Company museum, groups of up to 20 people per time slot | Bookable |
| Pagani, Modena | Visit by compulsory booking, from a minimum of 15 people | Bookable |
| Musei del cibo, province of Parma | Network of product museums tied to the consortia | On request |
| Archivio Storico Barilla, Parma | Company archive | On request |
What is included and what is not
Included: admissions and guided visits to the confirmed sites, the booking and coordination with whoever receives the group, three guided working sessions totalling six hours, the materials, one person from the Istituto with the group throughout the experience and the certificate of participation in the experience. Not included: flight, transfers to and from the airport, travel between the four cities, lodging, meals, urban transport, personal travel insurance.
The season, and why
You travel from February to November. January is out in its first week because Italian companies reopen after 6 January, and the rest of the month is not recommended because this experience lives on working plants and on people to talk to, not on exhibition rooms.
August is out: it is the month of the plant shutdowns, and a stopped factory is exactly what this experience is not.
The best window for the university channel is February-April. The reason, month by month, is on the Seasons page.
Logistics and capacity
The four sites are within a radius of about a hundred kilometers and are covered with short transfers; Bologna and Parma are connected by high-speed train, Maranello and Modena require road transport.
The lowest capacity on the route is 20 people, the Ferrari Museum's, and Pagani asks for a minimum of 15: this experience therefore has a narrow, stated window, between fifteen and twenty. The recommended group is 15 people: it is the size that reaches the group rates without going over the access limits of the visits. Above 20 the itinerary splits into two slots, the day gets longer and the cost per person does not go down.
Cover
The program includes an accident and public liability policy for the whole stay. The sums insured, the insurer and the policy number are published once it is taken out and are attached to the contract; until then they can be requested in writing, with an answer within two working days.
Do you want it to count as training, with a certificate? This experience can be built into an Istituto program, with classroom hours, a piece of work to deliver and a certificate of attendance. → For groups
Related experiences
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Let us talk about this route
We answer within two working days with the dates, the day by day program and the quotation.