I understand your feelings Jp
I live in Imola and, in my opinion, it's a jewel of a little city.
A lot of green, parks everywhere, nice historic city center and A LOT of motorsport passion.
Most of the pubs/restaurants here (there's one 100 meters from the circuit) have at least one giant wallpaper of Senna, Villeneuve, Schumacher, you can feel the passion everywhere.
And i can say that the Autodrome itself it's going back to life in a huge way, in the last 2-3 years. Every afternoon the circuit it's open to the public, and storms of runners and cyclist have a go around those iconic corners and hills.
World Superbike, 4 Hours of Imola, exibitions, Kart events, Italian championships, the circuit is used quite a lot!
I also have been a track marshall volunteer last year, nice experience.
It would be a huge event for sure, but wait and see.
I wish we'd met you when I went to the 4 hours a few weeks ago. If only everyone in Imola were so passionate about motor racing events at the autodromo!
From what we could see the tribunes were almost entirely empty for every session, including the race, even though general admission was free. I know it was only ELMS, but still, a chance to see Le Mans prototypes racing, for free, at a venue that's only 10 minutes walk from the centre of town, attracted very little interest from the majority of the local people as far as I could see. There seemed to be much more hype surrounding the Giro, which hadn't yet started.
I can promise you that if the ELMS went to Brands as a standalone event, Jonathan Palmer would not just open the gates to all and sundry. He would charge at least a few quid for tickets and he would still pull in a bigger crowd than Imola or Estoril get, despite the fact that Brands is in the middle of nowhere rather than in town.
So I can't say I agree about the passion for motorsport (maybe bikes, but not cars). But I do agree Imola is a beautiful place. We really enjoyed our stay. We rented an apartment in the town and were able to walk to the track each morning, and walk into town and back for our lunch each day. The walled part of the old city has been preserved in a way that similar historic towns in other countries, including mine, haven't been.