Thanks to the Netflix show Drive to Survive, like a lot of other Americans we have become newly-minted fans of Formula One racing. Our trip coincided with one of the races held at a nearby town so we decided to see if we would enjoy watching the action live instead of on the small screen. Races are usually a three-day event, with Friday and Saturday mornings devoted to practice laps, and a qualifying event on Saturday afternoon to determine the start order for Sunday's race. You can buy tickets for the entire weekend or just for one of the days. Tickets to view the actual race seemed a little pricey, so we opted to buy the much more reasonable Saturday-only ticket.
The town of Monza is about a fifty-minute train ride north of Milan. We joined a mob of fans wearing red jerseys on the platform to board the very packed train. There are 20 teams in Formula One (F1). Each team has a main sponsor such as Mercedes, Red Bull, or Aston Martin. The Italian team is sponsored by Ferrari -- their two drivers wear bright red suits and their flashy red cars are easily visible as they zoom by on the track. The fans here are very passionate as one would expect because...Italy. Earlier this week we walked past a Ferrari store in Central Milan and there was a line out the door of people waiting to get in. The shop had authentic F1 fireproof suits on display:
At the track, we had general admission tickets which allowed us to wander around and find viewpoints along the fence but not in the grandstand seats/pit lane area/or finish line (those tickets cost quite a bit extra). We managed to find some standing room where we could watch (and hear) the cars speed past. Each car literally goes by in an instant so if you blink, you miss it. Here are two Italian cars: first is the Ferrari driven by Carlos Sainz followed by an Alfa Romeo driven by Zhou Guanyu.
The cars are quite loud as they go by, so ear protection is essential. When we were packing for the trip I wasn't sure if foam earplugs would be enough to block the noise -- sometimes on TV you see people wearing headphone-type ear defenders. Since I'd never been to a track I really wasn't sure but decided to pack light and just bring small foam earplugs. Unbeknownst to me, Kevin had thoughtfully packed an unwieldy pair of ear defenders just for me in case it was really loud. It was very sweet of him, although it turned out that simple ear plugs were good enough to block the noise. But I did promise to wear the ear defenders at least for a little while, so here I am doing my best Princess Leia impersonation. Poor Kevin, now he will have to carry these around in his suitcase for the next ten weeks!
Our general admission tickets gave us access to wander around the track and also visit the Fan Zone, which had some food stalls, a DJ, and fun stuff to do in between events. There was a car show displaying various teams' vintage racecars from previous Formula One eras. Ferrari was, of course, well-represented.
One of the Fan Zone kiosks let you and your buddies try out being a pit crew -- each station had two huge tires and an industrial-sized jack. Each team then competed to see who could do the fastest tire change. Each tire weighs between 20-25 pounds so I imagine it's not as easy as it looks on TV. We prudently skipped the back-breaking labor and instead waited our turn in line for a free souvenir photo with the team of our choice. When in Rome (or Monza, in this case...) you have to choose Ferrari of course!
We enjoyed our time at the track, but I will say it is much easier to follow what's going on if you are sitting comfortably on the couch watching the race on TV. There were large Jumbotrons here and there along the track and I'm sure the grandstands had a better view of the action in general. But the track is so big that you can't see everything at once (it's 3.5 miles long and not an oval like in Nascar). So there was a LOT of walking involved, and towards the end of the day we were definitely losing steam from walking six-plus miles and standing around for hours in the hot sun. We followed the qualifying result times on a large screen for the first session and then made our way to the exit towards the train station in the hopes of being able to grab seats on the train before the rush. From the train station we followed the next 2 qualifying sessions on our phones. Even from the station we could hear the roar of the crowd when Carlos Sainz from Ferrari scored pole position, meaning he would start at the front of the pack for the race on Sunday. I'm sure the tifosi (Ferrari fans) were very happy to watch it happen, while we were very happy to be able to score seats on the train back!
Monza wasn't the only place we were able to spot expensive supercars. This shiny Lamborghini was parked just down the street from our apartment in Milan. Very red, very Italian. I can't imagine driving it through the streets here, though. There are many confusing rules about what types of cars can and can't go into certain zones (electric-only cars are favored). There are also zones that are called Limited Traffic Zones which have restrictions and fees that must be paid in advance before entering or you will face hefty fines. Much easier to take the Metro, in my opinion!
And of course even if you fully understand all the convoluted driving rules you would want a more sensible car, like this little guy. This would be the ideal car for the narrow twisty streets in the center of town, and it looks like it would make parking very easy. But you probably wouldn't be able to load more than one or two bags of groceries, and there is definitely not enough room in the trunk for a Costco run. (Who am I kidding? Italy does not have Costco.)
On Sunday, we had hoped to do a leisurely stroll through one of the art museums near our apartment, the Pinacoteca di Brera. Unfortunately I failed at planning and did not realize that it was a "free first Sunday" museum day and that although tickets were available for free, you needed to book them in advance. The Pinacoteca was completely sold out. So we instead went to the museums at the Castello Sforzesco, which were also free but have unlimited capacity for visitors (it's a very big castle).
The oldest bit of Milan's fortress was established in the 1300s by the then-ruling family of Visconti. But by the second half of the 1400s the Sforza family took over Milan by siege and rebuilt the castle into a much larger and more robust fortification, with multiple towers, tall covered walls, and a spacious courtyard.
Duke Ludovico Sforza commissioned Leonardo da Vinci to paint a ceiling here in the castle in the Salle delle Asse ("room of the wooden planks"). Leonardo designed the painting to give the viewer the illusion of looking up into a grove of mulberry trees, using a technique called trompe l'oeil (French for "fool the eye") and a unique perspective to make the mulberry forest seem realistic. Unfortunately he once again used the impermanent tempera technique to apply the paint, and we know how that ends up! The room was technically closed for refurbishment, but you could walk through a small corner of the room and still see the ceiling quite well. It is obvious that the work has not held up as well as other ceilings that were painted using the fresco technique (such as the Sistine Chapel in Rome).
We thought we would be able to pick and choose the museums (there are something like eighteen of them, according the to castle's website) but once you got inside there was a proscribed route obliging you to pass through several museums whether you wanted to or not. There was a lot of walking involved because, like I mentioned earlier, the castle is huge! The Ancient Art museum had the most interesting displays: suits of armor, weaponry and ballistics, and various Milan-specific artefacts, like the Gonfalone della Città di Milano ("Banner of the City of Milan") which was designed by local painter Giuseppe Arcimboldo who also painted the very memorable "fruit head" portraits. (His Vertumnus is one of my favorite paintings -- look it up if you have the chance; it's unforgettably surreal and very ahead of its time). Unfortunately the Milan Banner contains your average normal-looking people -- no veggie-based facial features here.
In a detached gallery separate from the other museums is the room dedicated to the Rondanini Pietà, Michelangelo's unfinished last sculpture. This is a marble sculpture that he worked on until his death in 1564 at age 88. It depicts the Virgin Mary mourning her son Jesus after his crucifixion. The sculpture definitely looks unfinished and has an almost ghoulish aspect. If you didn't know it was the work of Michelangelo you might assume it had been made by a modern artist because the entwined figures have an elongated and unnatural shape that looks nothing like his previous works (the David, for example). Very interesting and worth checking out if you are ever in Milan on the free museum day.
No comments:
Post a Comment