After the Belgium Grand Prix last year, we continued our journey to Italy for great food, landscape, art, espresso, people, food, espresso, etc. The house we were staying began to get much crowded because of friends and other family members coming in for my wife's mother birthday in the next week.

So we decided to hit the the road, rather rails, and went to Ravenna to see the Byzantine mosaics and the eastern seashore. But we would be back for the big 80th birthday celebration.

We went back to Bologna to rent a car, originally a cheap Lancia, but we ended up waiting for several hours and got an Alfa at no extra charge. Very fun car to drive. The intent was to stop at Imola and see the track and the Senna statue. But it was late and the the roads would be mountainous and twisty so I hesitated and my wife said no, "we've come this far, we need to stop at Imola."

Imola turned out to a charming town and the race track was just across from a small creek outside of town. I was under the impression it might be 5 or 10 km outside the town itself. So we found the entrance to the track and public park. And there was this very weird statue nearby. My impressions ranged from very funky to totally bizarre.

The front straight from the grandstand across from the pits.

The inside of the track is a beautiful and well maintained public park. We were trying to figure out where the statue might be. We figured, if not near the main entrance, then around Tamburello.

We wandered around some. Acque Minerali from the grandstand.

We got on the road nearest Tamburello and found a place to park. We wandered down a path - there were children and people of all ages strolling about and playing. There, part way down, and not marked at all, was the statue.

After seeing some of the most famous Renaissance sculpture in Florence and Siena, I think I was prepared to be a little disappointed in the Senna statue, but it held up very well. The flowers in his lap appeared to have been placed there very recently. From this view, especially, he looks very sad as he contemplates his own and everyone's mortality.

There were many notes and photos on the fence on the inside of Tamburello; some recent, some several years old.