The Temple of Speed — Italy's royal city with the fastest and most storied Formula 1 circuit on earth
Monza is a dignified royal city just north of Milan, famous for its Cathedral (which holds the Iron Crown of the Lombard kings), its vast Villa Reale park, and above all for the Autodromo Nazionale Monza — the fastest circuit on the Formula 1 calendar, built in 1922 and still hosting the Italian Grand Prix every September. The banking of the old oval circuit still rises above the trees. Milan is 15 minutes away by train.
Monza was the preferred residence of the Lombard Queens and became a royal city in the early Middle Ages. The Iron Crown of Lombardy kept in its Cathedral was supposedly made from a nail of the True Cross — it was used to crown Charlemagne, Napoleon, and a string of Holy Roman Emperors. King Umberto I of Italy was assassinated in Monza in 1900. The Autodromo was built in 1922, making it one of the oldest purpose-built racing circuits in the world; the old banked corners, now disused, are a UNESCO candidate.