ED Memories: July 27, 2023

Thursday, July 27, 2023

After a delicious breakfast in the hotel, it's time to visit the Senna memorial at the Autodromo di Enzo et Dino Ferrari, the place where he lost his life on May 1, 1994. We park and walk outside the track fencing to the spot where he crashed. A few small inscriptions are written on the stanchions, and some old faded flowers hang from the fencing. I take just a couple of pictures, but feel very sombre. It's a piece of F1 history here, and my F1 history too - I remember the day, calling dad after it had happened. The shock of it. I'm glad we came here.

From there we cross through a large drainage tunnel underneath the track, to the interior - which is the parc Aqua Minerale, named after the spring that bubbles up here. Inside the track is the more public memorial installation, and we pay our respects there too. The bronze statue of Senna seems much smaller than I had envisioned. I think it's life size, but I always thought it was bigger. It's a fitting pose, I think, and I'm happy it's not some display of triumph or showiness or anything like that. Just a man sitting introspectively. I get a bit overwhelmed with some tears in my eyes and have to walk off a bit on my own.

After Imola, we head up into the mountains to the southeast, hitting another small town (are all the towns in  Italy so small and so picturesque? I think so!) with a lovely little castle with cobblestone streets. Driving up and out we reach a pretty spectacular crest section with some nice twisties along the top of a ridge, beautiful views to the left on the right, stopping for a snack, and a drink at an old monastery. Signs commemorating the fallen war heroes are prominent here.

Moving on, we capture some drone footage along the ridge-line and then make our way down into the valley. Evidence of all the flood / landslide damage is here in abundance and at one point we have to turn around along this road because it is blocked by landslide damage, and hunt for another route.

Looping back to Imola gives us a chance to spray wash the cars, and then we head towards the outskirts of where we think we will be able to do some camping. It's becoming hard to enjoy the curves though, as my low fuel warning is on again and I know there aren't any fuel stations for miles around - let alone ones with 94 octane! It stresses me out more than Andrew I guess. He's nonplussed, not wanting to backtrack, but I need to force the issue a bit in the future because it's making me not enjoy the road much. I'm driving 'lightly' to save fuel.

We progress, and again, Andrew's direction-finding comes to the fore and he finds the beautiful camping spot nestled in the hills along a spectacular road. With the tent set up, a light snack dinner consumed, and some philosophical chit chat about the nature of risk (my fuel stresses prompting the discussion?) and a society that seems bent on completely eliminating risk, we hit the sack.

I think I fell asleep within 30 seconds.

The brook nearby, the cool air, the complete darkness.

Perfect. 

~ Luke

p.s. You can read the full, no-holds-barred accounting of this day at gtschronicles.com.