March 30 – April 8
The best place to fly into to get to this track is Milan from the United States. Luckily, from Atlanta we got a direct flight so that we could sleep on the way over and adjust to the time. We arrived to Milan on the 31st at 9:25 AM.
We rented a car and drove straight to Cremona. The drive to Cremona was 1 hour and 50 minutes. (Make sure you rent your car from an agency in the Milan airport, it is very hard to find the transport to off-site pickups. I had this booked originally and we wasted a lot of time and ended up cancelling and re- reserving a car from within the airport.) This drive is through a lot of Italian farm land and there are a few tolls to be aware of.
We spent 4 nights in the Motel Circuit Drive ( https://www.motelcircuitdrive.com/ ), just about a 10 minute drive from the track. This was a great option for two people needing a simple room to stay in, and there was self check-in which is especially nice for a late arrival. There was a ton of extra parking space next door and it was very nice inside.
We then spent 2 nights in Bed & Biker ( https://www.bedandbikercr.it/ ) since these nights the motel was already booked. I can’t say how much I loved this place! It was even closer to the track and in a cute little town with a fantastic pizzeria and a great tapas restaurant within walking distance. There was street parking, and if you remind them at check-in, they give you a free breakfast voucher for the cafe at the track.
The pizzeria (Pizzeria Giovane Italia – Cingia De Botti) that had the best pizza I have had in Italy, and the prices were fantastic. You could eat there or to go with a very quick turn- around time.
The restaurant Pit Stop next door was also fantastic and had a pasta selection (which is actually very hard to find in this region where it is 99% pizza).
For breakfast, the only place to eat is the cafe at the track. They have croissants, sandwiches, ice cream, lunch foods, coffee, and other drinks. They can run out of food quickly though so get there in a timely manner depending on the event. Make sure you find a grocery store in the city of Cremona on the way down if you need some food variation for your stay.
The city of Parma is only about a 40 minute drive from the circuit and is worth checking out to try the parmesan cheese and see the historical buildings if you have half a day like we did.
During these days, April 1 – 5, WorldWCR had a few media days for us and then 2 on-track days for us scheduled. The garages were quite big and there is a big go kart track on the property as well that does have rental carts.
Other than discovering multiple issues with the bike on the first test day, and jumping the bike of a rider that crashed right in front of me causing a bit of a crazy crash, we had a great test getting faster each session and learning the track for the race taking place next month!
Screenshot
From here, we drove back up to Milan to catch a flight to our next destination, but we gave ourselves a 2 day buffer to explore the city. I needed to get my leathers mended after my crash and we found this leather work shop that helped us with patches within the day. They were fantastic in a time crunch!
I found this fantastic apartment on Airbnb close to the city ( Link to the apartment -> https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/171017?source_impression_id=p3_1747678399_P34IT4iUvAW5PFFE ). There was street parking and a tram station right in front of the building that took us anywhere in the heart of the city very easily. The apartment had books on the best places to see and eat in the city. This was a fantastic experience.
We saw the Duomo.
We saw one of the few Starbucks Roasteries in the world. I highly recommend, and very close to the Duomo.
It was very easy to fly out of the Milan airport, and we headed to the Netherlands for the Assen race next!
