May 25, 2016
After a brief, but fun filled visit to Venice, this morning, we hopped in the water taxis to be taken to our cars. I've never seen as many fabulous sports cars. McLauren, Porsche, Audi, Mercedes, Lamborghini, Maserati and Ferrari were among some of the cars participating this year. Jacqueline and I have a lovely yellow 458 Spider Ferrari.
The fanfare at the starting point was kind of spectacular. A band was playing live music, food stands were serving everything from yogurt and granola to gelato and soft drinks. Colorful sports cars lined the street.
We were all checking out each other's cars when the trip organizers announced that it was time to get in our cars and take off.
The roar of 40 sport car engines revving was almost as deafening as the sounds at a race track. Adrenaline was on full alert as we drove our cars across the starting point while confetti canons were spraying us with black and gold glitter confetti. And we were off.
As we drove out of Venice, people lined the streets with cameras and flags waving us on. We felt so important, when in truth, they just wanted to see the cool cars.
Only a few miles into the trip, as we began to merge into Italian traffic, which in itself is quite unnerving, the group began to split up. Some of us followed the wrong guy and circled the round-a-bout several times before getting on the right track again. It felt like a scene out of European Vacation: "Look kids, there's the exit for highway A113," again and again until we finally took the correct exit. Once we were finally on the correct road, we were able to "air it out" pushing the car to crazy speeds. By the way ... riding in a speeding Ferrari as a passenger is NOT relaxing. I have an entirely new appreciation for my friend, Sharon, who accompanied me on a Ferrari drive across California last fall. I was driving at crazy speeds then. Sharon, I'm so sorry. I'll never do that again. It's just frightening. While the driver feels quite comfortable driving over 100 MPH, the passenger is helpless and wondering what happens if a car pulls in front of us, or if a tire blows out. A member of our group said, "Racing on a track is dangerous. Racing on a highway is reckless." He's right. And I had white knuckles from clinging to the door handle, to prove it. As we were racing down the highway, an occasional bit of the confetti from the confetti canons would fly off a car ahead of us. We left a confetti trail for miles.
Jacqueline drove this morning. Our destination, The Mugello International Circuit Racetrack. This track is owned by Scuderia Ferrari and used by the FI team for testing. It's renowned as one of the fastest and most beautiful tracks in the world.
We arrived at the track around 1:30, signed in, picked up a helmet and were told to get in our cars and head to the track for some laps. So we did just that. Off we go behind the pace car for the first lap and then they cut us loose. Jacqueline had no trouble keeping up with the cars in front of us and would have passed several of them, but we were only allowed to pass in the straightaways, and there were not many of them on this curvy track. But she was happy just driving fast and furious. Three laps later, Jac and I got the red flag, which meant we had to go into the pit area. Turns out, rental cars are not allowed on the track. Guess we missed the fine Italian print in the rental agreement. Oops! Jac loved running the track and she was darn good, too. Afterwards, we parked the Ferrari in the lot and worked our way to the lounge on the third floor, overlooking the pits, where we had a fabulous lunch. After lunch, we wanted to get a jump start on the group and get on the road, so we went back to the car. Our car would not start. One of the Run to Monaco sponsors called the traveling mechanic over to check out the problem. Turns out, we got more than our wrists slapped for running the rental car on the track, the GPS system on the car picked up our location on the track and through a system like On-Star, shut down the car, not allowing it to re-start. Oops again! Fun OFF! The rental agency had to go into the OnStar type system to reboot our car allowing us to get running again. We ended up being the last car to leave the track.
The afternoon drive took us to Fiesole, in the hills just north of Florence. Our destination, Hotel Il Salviatino, which at one time was a 15th century Palazzo with gorgeous Italian gardens and the most fantastic views of the city's famous Duamo cathedral.
The narrow streets of Fiesole challenged us as bit. At one point, we foolishly followed a red McLauren the wrong way down a hill, which was so narrow, we barely squeezed by, only to find it was a dead end and we had to back up the hill. This is where I took out the wheels on the driver's side of the car against a curb. Ouch!! The wheel grinding against concrete curb is a horrific sound!! We finally got turned around and made our way to the hotel. Greeted at the door with a glass of champagne lifted our spirits and our energy level. We quickly showered, dressed and returned to the terrace level for cocktails. The dinner was delicious, but the entertainment was completely over the top. While having cocktails, we noticed workers filling dozens of huge white balloons with helium. We had no idea what they were for, and quickly forgot about the project. Before and after dinner, a 50 piece orchestra, which consisted of mostly strings, performed my favorite Italian opera songs. The orchestra and the singers were phenomenal.
The orchestra took a break during dinner, but shortly afterwards began to play again. As we were enjoying the music, suddenly the white balloons floated into the air carrying a beautiful lady dancing in the sky. I'll have to post a photo here to show exactly how this worked, because I cannot describe it in an understandable way.
This may have been one of the most incredible displays I've ever seen. The gorgeous ballerina was harnessed to dozens of helium balloons high above the orchestra. The men controlling the balloons with lines would lower her to the man on the ground - on stilts, of course - and they would dance until she would be pulled away to the sky again. Just a remarkable performance. After the ballerina was safely back on the ground, all of the balloons were set free and illuminated with the spotlights as they floated into the nigh sky. It would be worth getting married again someday, just to make an entrance like this one. Jacqueline, what do you think? This could be really fun and you're more likely to get married someday than I. Anyway, the show was spectacular.
After the show and one more nightcap, I literally crashed into bed. The day was so amazing. Spending time with Jacqueline has been such a wonderful gift for me. I've loved every minute of it. Even the times when I had white knuckles because of her driving speed. The truth is I'm a darn good driver, ... but her reflexes are faster than mine and her driving skills are better than mine, too. She doesn't do anything that exceeds her comfort level. The problem is ... if something happens out of the norm, i.e., a dog running into the road - which happened today, something bad can happen in a hurry. Guess I just worry too much. I do feel very comfortable with her behind the wheel. But I still suffer from a bit of "white knuckle syndrome."
Tomorrow, our drive takes us to the beautiful Portofino.
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| Water taxi to "Run to Monaco" Start Line and Cars. |
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| Venice is a beautiful city. |
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| Water taxi through the streets of Venice. |
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| My driver. My sweet daughter. My Jacqueline. |
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| Forty Cars lined up at the start point of the "Run to Monaco." |
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| Panoramic shot of some of the cars. |
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| Our car for the "Run to Monaco." 458 Spider. |
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| Bruce and Gail's car - Red California. |
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| Ladies ... start your engine! |
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| Taking off through the confetti. Monaco, here we come. |
As we drove out of Venice, people lined the streets with cameras and flags waving us on. We felt so important, when in truth, they just wanted to see the cool cars.
Only a few miles into the trip, as we began to merge into Italian traffic, which in itself is quite unnerving, the group began to split up. Some of us followed the wrong guy and circled the round-a-bout several times before getting on the right track again. It felt like a scene out of European Vacation: "Look kids, there's the exit for highway A113," again and again until we finally took the correct exit. Once we were finally on the correct road, we were able to "air it out" pushing the car to crazy speeds. By the way ... riding in a speeding Ferrari as a passenger is NOT relaxing. I have an entirely new appreciation for my friend, Sharon, who accompanied me on a Ferrari drive across California last fall. I was driving at crazy speeds then. Sharon, I'm so sorry. I'll never do that again. It's just frightening. While the driver feels quite comfortable driving over 100 MPH, the passenger is helpless and wondering what happens if a car pulls in front of us, or if a tire blows out. A member of our group said, "Racing on a track is dangerous. Racing on a highway is reckless." He's right. And I had white knuckles from clinging to the door handle, to prove it. As we were racing down the highway, an occasional bit of the confetti from the confetti canons would fly off a car ahead of us. We left a confetti trail for miles.
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| Formula 1 Race Track - Mugello. |
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| Jac driving at Mugello. Got up to around 140 MPH on the track. |
The afternoon drive took us to Fiesole, in the hills just north of Florence. Our destination, Hotel Il Salviatino, which at one time was a 15th century Palazzo with gorgeous Italian gardens and the most fantastic views of the city's famous Duamo cathedral.
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| Gardens of the Hotel Il Salviatino. |
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| Bruce and Gail enjoying the orchestra. |
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| Mark and Jac not into the orchestra. |
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| The orchestra and opera singer. |
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| Ballerina hoisted in the sky with balloons. Amazing! |
This may have been one of the most incredible displays I've ever seen. The gorgeous ballerina was harnessed to dozens of helium balloons high above the orchestra. The men controlling the balloons with lines would lower her to the man on the ground - on stilts, of course - and they would dance until she would be pulled away to the sky again. Just a remarkable performance. After the ballerina was safely back on the ground, all of the balloons were set free and illuminated with the spotlights as they floated into the nigh sky. It would be worth getting married again someday, just to make an entrance like this one. Jacqueline, what do you think? This could be really fun and you're more likely to get married someday than I. Anyway, the show was spectacular.
After the show and one more nightcap, I literally crashed into bed. The day was so amazing. Spending time with Jacqueline has been such a wonderful gift for me. I've loved every minute of it. Even the times when I had white knuckles because of her driving speed. The truth is I'm a darn good driver, ... but her reflexes are faster than mine and her driving skills are better than mine, too. She doesn't do anything that exceeds her comfort level. The problem is ... if something happens out of the norm, i.e., a dog running into the road - which happened today, something bad can happen in a hurry. Guess I just worry too much. I do feel very comfortable with her behind the wheel. But I still suffer from a bit of "white knuckle syndrome."
Tomorrow, our drive takes us to the beautiful Portofino.
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