We commenced at 7.30am as planned and completed a very pleasant drive to the outskirts of Florence where we left the motorway and congregated just past the toll booth. The weather was beautiful and the scenery was lovely. We were then taken through the ‘back roads’ by escorted convoy to attempt to avoid the mad Monday morning traffic. We climbed high into the mountains and saw some beautiful scenery and eventually arrived at the Mugello race circuit at Scarperia. After a special stage, we had lunch (again, the amount of food is just ridiculous!!) then we were treated to a couple of laps around the circuit (not quite as manic as the previous free-for-all!!), then after a further special stage we continued to Imola where we found our hotel and settled in. Dinner was at the hotel, and then the evening was spent doing karaoke and dancing which everyone entered into the spirit of brilliantly.
Tuesday morning’s start was at 08hrs 34’30” and we proceeded on roadbook to a control point and then continued to a second control point in the tiny village of Castel de Rio where we stopped for an hour, sampling the local olive oils. We then set off again over a control point to the Ferrari race track at Imola where we had lunch (more food!!), completed two special stages and then finally completed 3 laps of the race circuit, stopping on the first lap to visit the spot where Ayrton Senna lost his life in a tragic accident. We then returned to the hotel and are preparing for this evening’s dinner (more food!!), more karaoke and our final hike back north. Today sees the end of the navigational rally so that’s the last of the special stages (shame!!), tomorrow we’re off to Annacy which is about a 6 hours+ drive so we need to set off as early as possible – at least we can go back to SatNav (yeah!!) and, in my case, more sleep in the car!!! (poor Ian, good job his Man Flu is on the mend)
Catch you soon
Bye for now.
