We only had 110km to ride to get from Pesaro to Imola, our home for the next 3 nights. We are here to watch the World Superbikes. This is our first visit to a Superbike race although we have been avid TV fans of this style of racing for several years but nothing beats being there in the flesh - so here we are!

Our B&B is just 7.5 km from the track and is known as a Farm Stay - thank god there are no cows to milk or worse still, chickens to feed! The B&B is surrounded by grape vines and has a lovely pool - that is, if it wasn't covered and had water in it! Still, you can't beat the location and the price includes parking, Wi Fi and breakfast. It is also reasonably priced even though such a big sport's event is being held just up the road.

As soon as we checked in about 11am we were back on the bike and off to the races. The Imola track is right in the town. After parking the bike and parting with the entrance fee for the next 3 days, we could already hear the bikes calling us.

We could sit any where we wanted for Friday but had seats in one of the stands for Saturday and Sunday. We wandered around the paddock and checked out all the lined up trailers for the teams - money involved in running a team at this level must be enormous! We even managed to get a quick photo of Aryton Badovini, one of the Superbike riders. The weather has continued to be glorious and we soon found a shady spot to watch Free Practice. After sitting in the shady stand for an hour we went to check out our spot for the following 2 days - NO SHADE!

As we were checking out our spot we were stopped by a lady calling out. It was Julie, the lady who works in the office at the shipping depot at Felixstowe. She recognised us as we walked by! She is over here with her fiancé to watch his son, Jake Lewis, race in the Superstock 600 race. Jake is a Kiwi, but we won't hold that against him and are keen to see how he goes over the next 2 days. Chris, Julie assures she will be back in Felixstowe by the time we pick your bike up on the 22nd.

We settled in to watch the day's activities and decided that we would try and upgrade our tickets so that we could be in the shade for the next two days. The afternoon flew by watching free practice, checking out the paddock (again!) and looking at all the bikes available for test rides in the Village. We left the track about 5 after upgrading our tickets for 10 Euros each (worth every Euro cent we discovered over the next two days!) and headed back to our B&B for a Greggy dinner.

The next two days were spent at the track from 9:30 to 5pm and we believe the pictures will tell the story better than words.

On day 2 Greg decided he wanted to walk around the whole track. After Kerrie checked out the map, she decided to "mind the seats" while he went. 2 Hours later, Greg returned tired, hot but content that he had achieved his aim. He told Kerrie all about his adventure. We then both walked down to a lovely shady restaurants that Greg had found, had a beer to share (Greg had to ride home) and then Greg escorted Kerrie to his find of the day! While walking around the track he discovered a memorial to Ayrton Senna - motor racing legend who crashed and died in 1994 at this track. There is a plaque on the wall beside the track and a bronze statue of Senna. There were flowers on the fence to commemorate the anniversary of his death on 1st May. We then returned to our grandstand to watch some more free practice and the Superstock 600 race. By the way, Jake Lewis started 21st on the grid and finished 19th. Well done Jake! We rode the 2km in to the town square for dinner before heading back to the B&B.

Jonathan Rae won both Superbike races on day 3 which means he has now won 8 out of the 10 held so far this year, he has an 87 point lead over his nearest rival. Hope he does well at Donnington when we are there to watch him in 2 weeks time. Tom Sykes was 2nd and it would have been British 1, 2, 3 but Chaz Davies' bike mysteriously stopped in both races. When we arrived back at the B&B this afternoon, we discovered the pool had been filled and the view from our window had improved markedly!

Happy Birthday to Greg's sister Cath -not telling you how old she is this time - we made that mistake in a previous blog 4 years ago when she turned 50!

Happy Birthday also to Marg, our friend who will join us in the UK with Craig on the 4th June.

Tomorrow we ride north to Riva Del Garda for our last night in Italy - for a while!

And last but not least HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to all of those mums reading this. Kerrie says she feels a long way from home today!