My girlfriend and I are contemplating a vacation to Rome next summer and thought about scheduling it around the Grand Prix at Monza. Can anyone give me any tips of where to stay close by and possibly some affordable hotels in the area? Thanks.

Ehhhh....

It's more then 500 km from Rome to Monza, but if you mean as a trip by car and do it as a car trip, then find a Hotel in by Milan, if something like that I can try get the details from where me and my brothers stayed in 2006.

Driving to and from the track is a breeze, you park in designated areas, and take a shuttle bus from there.

It being Italy and an all the general (mis)conceptions we may have about that, it was surreal how well organized and easy the parking and shuttle-busses worked, 20 minutes after the race ended we were in our car on the highway towards Malpenza.

Not sure if we still have the details on the hotel, anyone having ideas should post here.

But again Rome and Monza is quite a trip.

Milan and Monza do a brilliant job of getting fans to the circuit. I've been to several GPs & imo this is the best organised for public transport.

There's lots of information on the official site. http://www.monzanet.it/eng/come_raggiungerci_gp.aspx for details on how to get to the circuit.

There are plenty of cheap hotels in Milan & if you stay near Stazione Centrale, it's easy to get the train to Monza from there & then the free shuttle bus which picks up outside Monza station.

Hope you have a great time.

If you head to Monza why not camp? I did so the first year I went. There's a big camping ground just outside the circuit by the first lesmo. Cost me about 20 euros for my tent. And I'm sure I could have turned up after dark and pitched it without paying...

Transport links are really easy. Trains from Milan are really frequent and dirt cheap, if you have to pay at all...

Late summer in Italy is simply beautiful (aside from our trip last year when it rained all three days...) and the race has such a chilled out atmosphere.

If I were you I'd go General Admission. If you arrive on the Friday every grandstand is open, and there are lots of good spots to pick up on Sunday.

The Italian fans are pretty nuts, especially the young men. They build massive grandstands of their own in the GA areas... I even saw two guys carrying in scaffolding and no one noticed at all.

Do it, you'll never regret a trip to Monza.