Day 9 - 24 April, 2005: Imola, Bologna

Didn't get too much sleep last night; what with the near death experience and all. We had to basically get the first bus of the day down to the train station. There was some confusion about how to actually convert our online reservation into a ticket, but I managed; with the help of the customer service lady, to operate the kiosk.

We booked our first leg to Bologna on the Eurostar. It was a quick jaunt from Florence to Bologna where we were to catch a regional commuter-type train to Imola. Let me tell you, that train was Packed. It was a sea of Ferrari Red as the Tifosi made their way to Imola from all corners. Thank goodness it was only 2 stops and about 20 minutes down to Imola.

When we disembarked from the train, we just followed the crowd through town towards the track. About half way there, we could hear the shriek of the V10's as the F1 cars went through their qualifying lap. I was a little disappointed that we got to Imola so late, because we missed all of the support races and the final qualifying session prior to the race. It was probably a mile and half or two miles walk through town and to the track. Once inside the track, we had to fight through the immense crowd to get to our corner, Rivazza A. You can see a map of the track at the website for the Autodromo Enzo i Dino Ferrari. It turns out the Rivazza was on the exact opposite end of the track from where we were, so we had another 20 minute hike to get to our grandstand. The track itself is old enough that there are houses and restaurants within its boundaries.

By the time we got to our seats, all of the pre-race action was over, so we had about an hour to wait until the race started. Our seats were next to some Brits who had come down for the race, so we were able to chit-chat with them until the race started. I could tell that Angela was very non-plussed by the whole affair; she had brought a book along and was in her own world reading. We almost witnessed a fight between two guys who were confused about where their seats were.

So, 1:30 comes and we can see on the jumbotron and hear over the PA that cars are starting to leave the pitlane and make their way to the starting grid. Now, Rivazza is one of the final turns, so we don't actually see our first F1 car for a few minutes. Man, even "crawling" along at 100mph those cars look and sound so amazing. When the cars first leave the pitlane, they're not really going at it very hard, they're just getting into their grid positions. Just before the race starts, they will actually do their warm-up lap where the drivers will attempt to get their tires and brakes up to normal operating temperature prior to the standing start.

The whole race was a blur of sight and sound and smell. The cars at full gallop are so loud! This was my first race of any kind, so I don't have any basis for comparison, but the sound was amazing! They can stop so fast; you don't really appreciate how fast they can stop and accelerate when you watch the races on TV. I do remember calling my buddy Adam back in the states and just holding the phone up so that he could hear the cacophany of all those V10's at full howl. What made this race really amazing was that, since Imola is so close to the Ferrari factory, and since all Italians love Ferrari, and since the Ferrari F1 team wasn't doing so well thus far, Michael Schumacher made the most improbable of charges through the field and fought Fernando Alonso (the current Championship leader) for the final 15 or so laps and got SO close, but finished 2nd. You'd have thought that he won the race the way the Tifosi were carrying on. There was so much energy there; kind of like a big-time college football game.

The good thing about F1 races is that they only really last 2 hours or so. After the race, Angela and I joined the rest of the herd and made our way back to the train station. We really took the long way this time, but finally made it to the station. After some confusion about the schedule and which trains were going to Bologna, we boarded and got back to Bologna probably by 5:30 or 6. We had intended to stroll through Bologna's famous wide boulevards and do a little sight-seeing, but it was raining and nasty, and since it was Sunday, nothing was open, so we holed up in a McD's while we waited for dinner time.

We spotted what looked like a good "locals only" type of ristorante and decided that, when they opened for dinner, that we would eat there. Bologna is in the heart of the region that brought us, among other things, Prosciutto ham, parmesan cheese, and lasagne. Needless to say, I was very excited about dinner tonight. Angela spotted some sort of "Old Navy"-esque clothing store right next door to the restaurant that was hopping with activity, so she instinctively poked her head in to check out the latest in Italian "grunge" fashion. This place was HUGE, and EXPENSIVE, to boot. How these kids could afford the clothes in there is beyond me.

Anyway, our dinner was delightful. I was able to order and pay without speaking a word of English, so I was fairly proud of myself. "Una mezzo rosso (half-liter of house red wine), una insalata caprese, i due lasagne."

We had a train to catch, so after dinner, we hurried back to the train station only to find that our train back to Florence was delayed by at least 45 minutes.

It was a _very_ long day, but we finally got back to our hotel. We're sleeping in tomorrow.