Home base for Ferrari?

You'd do best to pickup a rental car to see the area efficiently.

While you're there, go ahead and take the factory tour at Lamborghini. Their factory's located out in the country.

Since you are traveling on a rail pass, you might take a direct Regionale Veloce train from Milano Centrale to Modena. They go every 2 hours and take 2 hours and 10 minutes. That way you do not have to pay the mandatory reservation fee on the Freccia train to Bologna. According to the Ferrari Museum website, you can get a shuttle bus from Modena station to the museum for 12 euro round trip.

Bologna is well worth several days on its own. Great food, university atmosphere, many miles of collonaded sidewalks.

I read somewhere that factory tours are only available to Ferrari owners. That admission price was too steep for us.

Thank you all. I think we will go directly to Modena. That way we have the option to either rent a car if we want to explore further and check out Lamborghini or use the shuttles. I also like the idea of the smaller town, and appreciate the money saving train tip. We are visiting several cities and I am trying to mix up our experiences and stay within our budget.
Yes, sadly the factory is only open to owners, but there are two museums. I also read that with the Milan Expo there is a hop on/ hop off shuttle that takes you to other sites in the area. I think that there will be enough Ferrari sightings to keep my son excited and interested.
Thanks again!

We went to the museum in Maranello recently and it was terrific! I am not a car fan and was dragged along by 3 family members who are fans and I enjoyed it, too. If you can, go to Pizzeria La Bufala in Maranello. Absolutely fantastic!

We did it from Bologna once (and I stayed closer once with a car), but transportation is better from Modena, which also has a historic center. From Modena, the museum shuttle bus runs only every couple of hours to Maranello; plan to catch an early one. They don't have an inside-the-factory tour open to the public but they have a test-track-and-campus tour by bus (you stay on the bus, no photos allowed).

Thank you! We are going with the combo ticket for both museums, the bus tour of the track and the shuttle between Modena and Maranello.