The Yeti Trail Day 7: Florence to Munich

We left Florence with a certain degree of anticipation, for our next stopover point would be the hallowed racetrack of Imola in San Marino. The very ground where year after year the world's best drivers fight tooth and nail to the finish of what is a step towards winning the Formula One crown. It is also the very track where the late great Ayrton Senna raced for the last time and was tragically killed, in 1994. For us, all F1 fans to the core and some of us die hard Senna fans as well, this was a pilgrimage we just had to take.

The approach to Imola is deceptive for it's a small town that doesn't look like it could host an F1 race. Indeed, like most small towns the atmosphere was quite sleepy on that Sunday when we drove in with our two brilliantly stickered Yetis. Just at the gates of the track itself is a huge sculpture of a stack of Ferrari's. Clearly this was a town of the tifosi.

The official name of the Formula One circuit in Imola in the principality of San Marino, honours Enzo Ferrari - the founder of Ferrari, and his son Dino. Although built in the 1950s, it was not until the early 1960s that the race track saw a Formula One race being staged. But it quickly gained popularity. The track also witnessed the last fatality in F1 when Ayrton Senna's car crashed at the then flat out Tamburello curve in 1994. The Senna memorial (right), marking the spot where he died, is a pilgrimage for fans.

To add to the excitement of visiting an F1 track was the fact that there was a motorcycle trackday in progress. After watching the two wheeled wonders racing around the circuit we went in search of Tamburello, the very corner where Senna's F1 car had crashed, killing him in the process. It was a good distance away and we walked through quite a bit of scrub as well to get to the exact corner, which was changed to a chicane in the interests of safety after Senna's death.

Trail riding: We caught these cyclists indulging in Trail Riding, in the Bavarian woods. Trail Riding is a form of mountain biking where bicyclists ride on off road trails. Trail Riding gained popularity as a sport in the 1970s.

About two hours later, one and a half of which we spent at Imola, we were back out onto the Autostrada (Italian for motorway) - en route to Marmolada. Marmolada is the highest peak of Italy's Dolomites at 3,343 metres. The drive though ends at Rosengarten. Now don't be fooled by that German sounding name for Rosengarten is very much in Italy and is the base for climbing up the Marmolada. The next stopover would be at Zugspitze - the highest point in Germany.

En route Rosengarten there is deathly silence between these pillars as the cars get sheltered from the wind briefly

The crossing over into Germany is via two lane highways running through the picturesque German countryside. We drove on through a slight drizzle that had started about an hour after we entered Germany, to reach the sleepy town of Grainau. Beyond Grainau lies several hiking trails that lead to the base of the Zugspitze, from where climbs up the mountain begin. From Zugspitze we headed for the Schloss Neushcwanstein (see trivia), commonly known as the fairy castle, in Austria.
By the time we got back into Germany it was already dark and it was still drizzling. Nonetheless we made good time as we got our first taste of the German autobahn, a motorway without any speed limits! Next stop, Munich.