Our first Grand Prix ever was in 2004 at Imola, also in beautiful countryside much like Monza, only in Imola our lovely host drove us from our apartment right up to the race track. Staying in Cinesello Balsamo, we thought, how much trouble could one extra train stop be? Well, for starters, a bus ride was required from our hotel to the train station, and then from the train station in Monza either bus or race shuttle to the track entrance – and when I say entrance, that’s a loose term. The bus dropped us off at the far edge of the Parco di Monza – what seemed about a 3-mile walk to the actual entrance to the track. But I digress, we were excited to be there, no matter how much walking was required, I was just glad I had brought good shoes.
The good thing about the walk into the track was that all along the way were lots of places to get cappuccino, espresso, panini and brioche. The park is also quite beautiful and as we walked around, checking out the track and getting the lay of the land, I’ll never forget how astonishing it is to see the old banked track in person. The steepness is like nothing I’ve ever seen and can only be fully appreciated in person, particularly after the race when the fans are allowed to climb up and over it to get out onto the track.
Aside from the walking, the other thing that stands out is how good the food was at the circuit – pomodoro e mozerella and prosciutto e formaggio panini – the latter being my favorite. Even after the race weekend was long over and we were on our way to Tuscany, I still thought about how wonderful those simple sandwiches were - on bread that is nothing like anything you can find in a US grocery store.
On Thursday, after the pit walk, as the crowd was shooed towards the exit at the end of the day, we followed signs to a place that will, for us, always be a part of our Monza experience – The Pit Stop. A little bar tucked away off the beaten path, far enough off, in fact, that we thought somehow the signs were wrong. Just as we were wondering if we’d made a wrong turn, we saw the small patio with six tables. Inside was a bar with a few more tables, and not crowded like you would think, a friendly, welcoming place to rest our feet and have a beer.
When we were unable to successfully get a cab from The Pit Stop back to our hotel, we took the bus to the Monza centro storico where we made two great discoveries. The first being a wine shop that sold some fantastic wine from Italian F1 driver Jarno Trulli, the second Prater Pizzeria where we had a great dinner, but I think the dinner the following night at Ristorante Costa was our favorite.
On Friday, after making our way back to Cinesello Balsamo from a long day at the autodromo, the concierge at our hotel recommended Ristorante Costa to us for dinner. Not wanting to do any more walking, we asked if he could call us a cab. To him, my request made no sense, as he assured me this restaurant was only 50 meters from our hotel, just a few short blocks. He even wrote the brief instructions on the back of the hotel business card – make a left at the light, walk 50 m to the square where the restaurant is.
This is where we learned how true our Italian instructor’s joke about the Italian term “due piedi” is. The term literally means “two steps” and as she explained to us, when you ask for directions in Italy, you are often told the destination is only “due piedi” when in reality, it’s quite a hike. After twenty minutes of walking, we were just about to give up when we saw the restaurant on the far corner of a square. Glad we didn’t give up. We got a great meal, even with my super limited Italian – fortunately my Italian vocabulary is strongest when it comes to food. In addition to the great food and a particularly good tiramisu, they also had a man on a tiny stage playing keyboards who was very entertaining. When we first arrived, we was playing The Beatles and James Taylor. Later he was joined by a woman who sang Italian songs.
On Saturday we decided to forget the bus to the train to the shuttle to the edge of the park ritual, and hired a cab to take us right to the entrance of the circuit for qualifying. This was a good call, not just for saving our feet, but also because that’s how we met our great friend Jon who, along with his traveling companion, was also looking for a more direct route to the track and was more than happy to share a cab with us.
At the end of the end of the day, we returned to what would become our favorite post race hang out, The Pit Stop. Too tired and hungry to imagine making a trek anywhere else, we ordered a meat plate where I was first introduced to the mysterious cold cut called “speck.” Delicious, but I had a hard time figuring out exactly what it was. It was only later that I learned that it is cured ham – similar to prosciutto. We also ordered some pasta, nothing fancy, but both the torchetti pesto and the tagliatelle Bolognese were surprisingly good for what was basically bar food.
Race day was the perfect combination of everything I think the Monza experience should be – the weather was beautiful, Ferrari won (this particular race it was Schumacher – his last win at Monza, at least up to now) and after the race was over, we celebrated with a bottle of Jarno Trulli’s wine with our friends on the patio at The Pit Stop. Wish I was there right now.
Traci Carroll
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