Race Day!

Up early to be at Starbucks for opening at 7:30 - 5 minutes early so had to wait! John had cappuccino and pastry and I had Americano decaf. 

Went to La Scala, the first opera house in Europe - booked through Trip Advisor but didn’t have a confirmation and TA claimed we had booked through another company.  We were a little concerned, but we found the tour guide and our name was on the list. Hurray!!! 

The Tour:  so exciting to visit the opera house where Anita and Pellegrino (John’s grandparents) attended operas.  We got a great explanation of the layout and history and sat in a box on level 3, one level up from the Royal Box. We then toured the museum, a chronological series of small rooms illustrating the performers, directors etc going back centuries. 

We went across the street and sat on a bench at the Leonardo da Vinci monument and people watched. We then visited McDonalds for a cappuccino and scrambled eggs (Betty).  Betty then shopped 10 floors of Renasciento centre just off the Milan Duomo piazza.

Took the tram back to hotel.   Had a cool down and rest and wandered to canal. Ended up at SegnorVino for a lovely apertivo - Aperol and wine and vegetarian platter and olives .

Humps:

We used public transit today and it took 2 1/2 hours to get from the hotel to our seats. There was a massive throng of people that we were travelling with. Obviously lots of Ferrari fans but we did see tons of fans for every team.

We arrived on time to watch a sprint race.

Saw the old cars and driver parade.
Nap

On the track when the cars were preparing to start the race we saw Gordon Ramsey and a couple of football stars (we presume).

We had a slight delay (always something when we go to a race). There were two formation laps and then all the team crews came racing back to the track, which does not seem right. We were a bit confused until Bill realized that there were 19 cars on the grid instead of 20 because Yuki tapped out during the formation lap for some reason.

It was exhilarating to be at a F1 race again! Italian fans were very excited that Carlos Sainz lead the race for the first 15 laps until Max overtook and led handily for the last 36 laps. There was some minor collisions, but no accidents, yellow flags, or safety cars, so it was a quick race - around an hour and 20 minutes.

We were able to leave the park without too much delay. We decided to try and get on the purple shuttle instead of walking to the other side of the park and getting on the black shuttle again. BUT our ticket would not allow us to get onto the purple shuttle. One lady told us that it was only 2km to the bus station, so we decided to walk because we were stuck in traffic for a long time the previous day. Well, it was a 5km+ walk and I don’t think we would have been stuck in traffic that long. Then, we could see a huge crowd waiting to get on the train at the back of the station, I figured we should walk to the front of the station where we got on yesterday. No luck today, the police would not let us enter the station if we were going to Milan. So we walk all the way around to the back and were in a huge mass of people shuffling toward the trains like cattle.

We did hop onto a different train then where they were directing people, but it was going to the same station in Milan that we were directed to the previous day.

Ruff Humps:

Met Bill and T at 8:30 and had dinner at Movida on the canal. Bill has a date with the owner to have his lobster ravioli when we return to Milan next week. John had a massive veal cutlet and Betty had trout.  It was an excellent dinner.  John had a glass bowl of Aperol spritz and Bill had a La Italia, Betty had a martini and I had a Lady Rose.

Ended the evening with a gelato encore!