Mille Miglia Part 2 : THE NEXT MORNING Buon viaggio e Arrivederci!

The next morning bright and early we, now the ‘intrepid enthusiasts’, sneaked back into the park to see the sleepy teams arrive and make their final alterations and clean up before the final lap. In the morning light the array of shiny classic mobiles was  just as, or perhaps even more, thrilling.

The atmosphere was lively with smell of engine oil, engines roaring into life, although there were the few more reluctant which grumbled and spluttered, but with a bit of team work and a push they were off around the park.

Lucky for us the bar was open so we sat back to tuck into the standard Italian breakfast, cornetti and brioches together with a cappuccino and watched the show.

Even had prime seat to see the celebs arrive…. and leave in style.

The park was slowly emptying, most of the cars had made their way towards the starting line, all in number order.

One of the last was part of the Jaguar team, Charley Boreman and James Martin were going over the final checks, getting ready for the last lap. They were very relaxed and happy to chat about their adventures. We cheekily took advantage by asking for them to sign our official Mille Miglia  Poster that the bar owner had kindly given us.

We wished them on their way as they drove off to the top of the park and starting line, but due to the bottleneck of the queue we soon caught up with them.

An excellent opportunity to admire the beautiful motors before they left and a chat about omelettes, that is, James remarking on the number of omelettes each car was worth, yes….. a lot of omelettes!

An hour later after the last car had left, we wandered back through the empty still park……………..All was back to normal, as if nothing had happened.