After landing in Rome, I jumped into my high-powered Fiat hire car and headed north to the Tuscan region and the famous 'Autodromo Internazionale del Mugello'.
Traffic jam approaching the circuit...
The roadside advertising was at times distracting !
Got there eventually...
Local hero, Valentino Rossi was leading the championship and was chasing his eighth consecutive Mugello win. The fans were pumped....
and noisey...
Translation: "We are Rossi fans, and we don't like Pedrosa very much at all."...
The doctor during practice..
Another local legend, Loris Capirossi...
Aussie's aplenty also...
Casey...
Chris...
Ant...
The Ducati Club stands (spot the Stoner fan !)...
The Yamaha stand...
The Rossi Fan Club gathered at turn 3...
Crowd control...
Top class racing and a flagon of Chianti... Utopia !
The Mugello fun police go to great lengths to ensure fans cannot invade the track after the race. Two fences encircle he entire track, and there is barbed wire at the base to prevent fans from crawling underneath. Of course, this is nothing a good pair of wire cutters or a reasonable level of athleticism cannot overcome...
Mugello was everything I had hoped it would be. The atmosphere at the circuit was amazing and the race was a cracker too. A truly great experience.
Next stop, the city of Maranello for a visit to the Ferrari Museum...
the factory is nearby too...
It get's a little depressing looking at cars I'll never be able to afford, so I headed off to Bologna...the home of another Italian icon, Ducati.
The excellent Ducati Museum can be found in the factory premises.
Off to Spain for the Catalunya GP...
I had an excellent seat in the Grandstand at the end of the straight.
The massive main grandstand...
Casey Stoner throws it away during Friday's practice session...
He's back on track quickly though...
My original plan was to stay and watch Sunday's race, then drive overnight back to Rome and catch my late afternoon Monday flight home. It looked easy enough on the map, but the drive to Spain had taken longer than expected, and I realised that it was going to be too tight and too exhausting. So, after watching two days of practice and qualifying, I decided to head back to Rome the night before the race.
My little motorsport holiday was over and it had been a great experience. I had found many places, and roads along the way that beg further investigation - on a bike. Mugello 2009...hmmmm.
