We were up a bit earlier today and at breakfast by 9am. Gerard and I are going to Monza to see the race track and Lee and Michael are off to do the hop on, hop off bus.
We arrived at the station and bought a ticket to Monza with 10 minutes to departure and went upstairs to the platforms. We did not know the final town for the train so by the time we found someone who could tell us it was platform 8 we had to run for the train and just made it as the conductor was about to hit the switch to start the alarm for the doors to close.
We arrived in Monza 10 minutes later and walked through the town looking at the shops and looking for tourist information about how to get to the race track. We went to the Cathedral and the museum lady told us to go back to the station and catch the 221 bus, but buy the ticket at the tobacco stand. We still didn’t have a map or any idea if this was correct, so after we had a cool drink at a café Gerard asked a couple of local policeman who kindly took us to the tourist information centre and we got the same directions.
We walked to the bus stop and the tobacco stand was just nearby so we bought four tickets, two there and two back, and we waited for the bus. It was only a few minutes wait and the bus arrived. The driver told us where to get off, it was about 6km from Monza to a village called Biassono. An old man who spoke German pointed out the way to go and was very helpful. We walked down the street to the race track only to find the gate closed so we kept walking through the area called Monza Park. The race track is in the middle of a big park full of trees and tracks and paths. We could see the stands of the track and passed an area where you paid to use the swimming pools.
We walked on and came across a well-worn track and a big hole in the fence into the race track. Of course, Gerard went in and I had to follow protesting that we would be arrested and end up in an Italian jail. We wandered around and took photos of the track and in the stands and then went towards pit lane where we found other people. Phew! There must be an entrance somewhere for people to come in. We found a café and a tour place and organised a 10 euro drive around the track in a people mover with another family. We went on the ride around the track and stopped in poll position for photos. Gerard was very happy about it all. He had been to Monza Race Track.
We decided to head back but instead of going back to our hole in the fence we followed another road that we thought would take us back to Biassano. Oh no! it didn’t, of course. We were walking and walking and walking and we finally found a sign to an exit. It was a nice walk in the park through shade and trees, it was a hot day, about 28 and sunny. We kept walking and walking following the signs to the exit and despite a couple of fallen trees we finally came to an underpass that lead us to the outside of the race track but we forgot about the walls of the park. We followed the path and then, there in front of us was a huge, solid, metal gate with razor wire on top of it. Bugger!
We walked up to the gate and voila! It was not locked. We slid the bolt and the gate opened and we were in Lesmo, the next village. There was a guy on a bike the other side of the gate who was wanting to get in to the park so we got him to slide the bolt after he went in, so he was happy and so were we.
Lesmo had a train station, so we went there to catch the train back to Milan, but there was no one there, no train for over an hour and no way to buy a ticket so we decided to walk, yes walk, back to Biassano. This time we were walking in the sun and it was a lot hotter. We got to Biassano, bought a bottle of cold water each and found the bus stop.
Back in Monza we went to the station and bought a ticket back to Milan, but we had an hour until the train. We went to McDonalds and bought a beer and a chicken burger and chips. Yes we bought beer in McDonalds!
We caught the train back to Milan and were back at the Hotel about 5pm. What a weird day we had had and we had a good laugh about it along the way. Lee and Michael got back about 6pm and we decided to go to dinner at 7.30pm. We went back to the same restaurant as last night and had a yummy dinner again. Tomorrow we are catching the train to Monterosso at 8.10am.
