The abandoned banking
The 1955 banked oval still stands among the trees, cracked and silent, and you can walk it for free on any day without an event.
Rainer W. Schlegelmilch โ Public domain ยท crash71100 โ CC0 ยท Ank Kumar โ CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท Ank Kumar โ CC BY-SA 4.0
Honestly, usually not. On a normal day the circuit is quiet and empty, and its appeal is almost entirely in what it means rather than what it looks like; without the stories you will have travelled an hour to see asphalt and empty grandstands. The one exception is to treat the day as a walk in Parco di Monza with the Villa Reale, adding the abandoned banking as a strange, very photogenic stop along the way.
Always book ahead on the official site; slots are limited and weekends fill up. On race and event days the visitor tours stop completely, and the only way in is a race ticket bought months earlier at a far higher price. The Italian Grand Prix is normally in early September, and the circuit is closed to ordinary visitors across the whole race weekend including the Monday after, so if you are travelling that week, either plan around the race itself or pick a different day.
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In a patch of woodland on the edge of Monza, two vast concrete ramps rise out of the trees at close to forty degrees, cracked and streaked with moss, travelled today by nothing faster than a bicycle. This is the sopraelevata, the banked oval built in 1955 and given up on by the end of the 1960s once its ferocity outran both the cars and the men driving them. It is still standing, free to walk or cycle on any day without an event, and for anyone who understands what they are looking at it justifies the trip by itself. The circuit around it is older still. Monza opened in September 1922, the third permanent purpose-built racing circuit anywhere in the world after Brooklands and Indianapolis, and it has hosted the Italian Grand Prix in almost every season since the Formula 1 championship began in 1950 โ it has missed only once, in 1980. Italians call it the Temple of Speed and they mean it literally: long straights, few genuine corners, and the highest average lap speed on the calendar. Lesmo, Ascari, the Parabolica โ names any fan can recite in order. The weathered concrete grandstands and old timing towers give the place a gravity that newer, glossier circuits simply do not have. Walking into Parco di Monza costs nothing, but seeing the circuit from the inside needs a guided tour. The Tour Experience, around 25 euro for adults and about 20 reduced, takes you through the press room, the podium and race control โ the rooms you normally only ever see on television. A separate Track Tour, around 20 euro, drives you around the circuit itself in a minivan, though it runs in a single slot around midday and only on days with nothing out on track; the two together come to roughly 30 euro. Departures are usually at 10:00, 11:30, 14:30 and 16:30, and everything stops on event days, so book online before you travel rather than turning up hopeful. Getting there is straightforward enough: a train from Milano Centrale or Porta Garibaldi reaches Monza in about twenty minutes, then a local bus or a long walk through the park. Allow half a day. The park is one of the largest walled parks in Europe and contains the royal Villa Reale, which is what rescues the outing if you are travelling with children or with people who do not care about cars. Be honest with yourself: if motorsport means nothing to you and you have only two days in Milan, skip this. If it does mean something, standing on Monza asphalt on a silent weekday is not an experience you forget. Food inside the circuit is thin and often shut on quiet days, so eat in central Monza before or after.
The 1955 banked oval still stands among the trees, cracked and silent, and you can walk it for free on any day without an event.
The guided tour goes into the press room, the podium and race control โ all plainer and smaller than broadcast makes them look.
The circuit sits inside one of Europe's largest walled parks, alongside the royal Villa Reale, which keeps the day worthwhile for anyone indifferent to racing.
Via Vedano 5, 20900 Monza, Italy