Subject: F1: Monza

On Thursday I am going on a driving holiday to Lake Garda in Northern Italy. Very coincidentally. this is about an hour's drive away from the Italian Grand Prix at Monza...

Do I have any chance at turning up and getting tickets to qualifying?

Arguably more importantly, what do i tell my girlfriend to wangle it? At the moment I'm thinking send her off to Milan to by a handbag.

Qualifying? Probably. Can't imagine your wallet will like it, my dad once got me, a friend and him tickets to the race in Silverstone. I didn't get a Christmas present that year :P

Garda is amazing. I've been there 2mths ago - great time, beautiful surroundings. It's a shame you're already set up for Thursday - otherwise you would be able to go to Torino and take part in opening of the stadium [game vs Notts County].

There are 3 interesting islands on lake garda and one of them is truly amazing, it looks like a swimming garden.

And coffee with a cigarette in a small Italian city - priceless. As well as the women...:)

I've taken this photo about 3 hours drive from Garda, really nice place.



You can find similar views around Garda, especially when you drive to the Swiss side of the lake.
(edited)

Silverstone sucks and is one of the most overpriced i believe. I've found tickets for €40 each on Saturday on the first chicane just before the fastest straight in F1. Would be better seeing them all plough through there on race day though...

...so I'm going to "treat" my girlfriend to race-day tickets which is "general admission" (rubbish view) for €80 each :)

I think I've seen that "swimming garden" in one of my guide books. Also Sirmione looks lush.

Gutted about Torino, would have loved to have done that but will probably do the San Siro tour. I would also love to go to Castel Di Sangro but think it's a bit of a trek.

Cannot wait, it will be such an amazing trip. Heard nothing but great things about Garda.

Thanks for pic and advice etc :)

so then jimmy what was monza like????

I sat in the rain for 3 days at silverstone this year!!! :)

Felt like home, right? ;)

I never did answer this it appears. Silverstone was a little wet i remember ;)

Monza was "an experience" shall we say...

I drove (took the toll roads, nice and quick, about 45 minute drive), and parked in what i will describe as an industrial estate approximately a mile or two away from the circuit itself. Didn't have lots of choice, kind of ushered in, paid 20 euros, and was given a bus ticket.

A mistake i would later regret is not really having any idea where my car was parked at this time.

Anyway, before i got on the bus, i actually had to find the office to pick up my tickets. This wasn't in the circuit itself. I asked a lot of Italians if they could guide me but they were not a lot of help. I still had about 2 hours before the race started, so if I (and the missus) went.

Hour and a half later and a few miles walking in over 30 degree heat accompanied by an angry girlfriend, still hadn't found the ticket office. On goes the expensive GPS on the phone, finally find it with about 10 minutes to spare.

So we are in, and thankfully i bought some ear plugs in the previous hunt for the tickets, which is the best thing i did that day. If you have never heard F1 cars live before i cannot tell you how loud they are. My hearing is terrible, but these cars are something else. I would say 5-10 times louder than a low flying army jet.

The "view" we had with general admission was on the start/finish straight behind a fence, behind a mound, about 30 yards away. Basically saw nothing for the whole race except when they passed the start/finish line at 200mph.

Mega experience so far but felt i needed something to make it really worthwhile, so decided to run on to the track when the race ended, like you do. At this point, while watching the guys on the podium spray their champagne, i lost the missus.

I had a phone she didn't. I finally found her once it had all finished and got a little bit of an ear bashing, shall we say.

Next up, walking to the right bus stop. This was not obvious, by now, the missus' feet have nearly fallen off due to wearing flip-flops apparently.

We simply did not know where the hell we were going, but ended up walking through the woods as this is what most people were doing.

Miles later...

Ended up lost, literally in the middle of nowhere, but there was some sort of pub type/wedding venue type building which we stopped at for a much needed beverage and to decide how in the hell we were going to find my car.

The missus reckoned it was near some sort of Citreon garage, so we got the wedding venue type place to book us a taxi (turned out we were in the Italian equivalent of a National Trust forest) and taxis weren't really allowed in at certain times.

When it turned up, we managed to get the mostly Italian speaking guy to take us to this Citreon garage. Money was not mentioned at this point. We had about 45 euros in cash (no cards at all) on us and we can't have been further than 3-4 miles from the car.

Bearing in mind this was a Sunday in Italy, the meter was going nuts. He arrived at the destination on about 25 euros. It was a citreon garage, but problem being it was not the right one.

Off we go again, the meter got to 40 euros and we were sort of familiar surroundings, picking up reference points, but we had to get him to stop where we were and give him all our cash.

When we got out, we had not a single sheckel, no cards, no idea where my car was, in a foreign country. Walked for a bit, and finally found the car (dropping a pin on a map on the phone in hindsight would have been a great idea).

Exhausted, in the early evening, hours after the GP ended, i had to drive back but BUGGER IT NO!

We couldn't take the toll roads back as we had no money or cards. So the missus enters our previously 45 minute journey with toll roads in to the satellite navigational system without toll roads and it would take approximately three hours to get to our camp.

The start of the journey was a little silent by now, then i thought i'll just double check the glove box for my wallet and there it was. We could actually take the toll roads after all and use my credit card.

Get to the tolls, it wouldn't accept my card...took 15 minutes to get through without paying (issued with a 30 euro fine) and lots of unhappy Italians waiting impatiently behind.

And then we got back.

And relax.

flipping heck.

I went to silverstone 2 years ago, almost got stuck in mud. But didn't.

*not sure which story was better*

If that was me when i opened the glove box the wallet wouldnt of been there