Perhaps that doesn't come as a major surprise that both of the above events were characterised by extreme weather - torrential rain (except for, when it would have been most welcome, during the race itself) and baking heat respectively - although there are a number of other factors which would make me recommend a pilgrimage to Monza to any F1 fan.
Chief among these is that, unlike at Silverstone and the Hungaroring, where fans are pushed to the outside of the circuit away from the action, the layout of Monza is such as that you feel far closer to what's going on. The only area in which you can't roam freely around is the paddock, but you can walk the entire interior of the track all the way from Parabolica (where I was seated for Saturday and Sunday) up to the Lesmos.
Indeed, the pathway leading down from the Lesmo entrance - handily served by its own railway station on the Milan-Lecco line - allows you to walk under the old banking. That certainly helps to convey a sense of history about the venue that somewhere like Silverstone cannot; wherever you walk within the circuit grounds, there's a very special atmosphere that surpasses even that of Le Mans during the legendary 24 Hours.
Perhaps the best aspect of this freedom however is the number of big names you happen across during your travels. All weekend, there was a throng of fans massed at the entrance to the paddock waiting for someone of note to emerge, and I managed to take a cheeky snap of four-time champion and tifosi favourite Alain Prost as he was signing autographs.
He wasn't the only big name I encountered during my travels, though. Across the weekend, I was able to catch a glimpse of (in no particular order): Nico Hulkenberg, Felipe Nasr, Stoffel Vandoorne, Dani Juncadella, Eric Boullier, Graeme Lowdon, Rob Smedley and - best of all - Martin Brundle, who I happened to bump into during the pitlane walk on Thursday afternoon. The Sky Sports commentator and F1/Le Mans star of yesteryear was kind enough to sign his autograph and pose for a picture with me (in which, sadly, I look like an utter goon, but there we are).
The pitlane walk, and not just because of my chance meeting with Brundle, was a particular highlight of the weekend, helping to remind me that this sport I obsess over and plan to dedicate my career to is in fact a real thing, providing thousands of real people with their livelihoods, and not just some fantasy-land that exists only on my TV screen as it can often seem!
Another of the weekend's memorable moments was when I tried my luck in the 'Gamezone', which allowed those to have purchased some official F1 merchandise (for the record, I purchased a Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull hat, as modeled in the below image) a go on a simulator. I was pitched against seven opponents and scored the second fastest lap time, enabling me to have another go. My second attempt was less successful, setting only the third best time.
But, the person with the third fastest time was given an attempt at the Batak challenge, used by professional athletes to hone their reflexes (to get an idea of what this entails, click here to watch Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button have a go). To my astonishment, I set the high score for that day with 75, meaning I was invited back to a final showdown against Riccardo, an Italian, and Neil, an Irishman, who had also set the highest scores on their respective days.
I managed to up my score to 79 on my second attempt, but sadly it wasn't enough as Neil mustered 80 and Riccardo 82, the latter scooping the prize of a pair of grandstand seats for next year's race - at least he had the least far to travel of the three of us!
Moving on to the on-track action, one aspect of the weekend I was particularly anticipating was hearing the much-maligned new engine note of the new generation of F1 cars with my own ears. I was not among those who slated the new sound at the start of the year - in fact, I enjoyed being able to hear things like lock-ups and screeching tyres, which were previously drowned out by the high-pitch scream of the old V8s.
My opinion hasn't changed having now heard the cars trackside; I don't even think they need to be made louder, as has often been suggested. If you listened carefully, you could even tell which car ran which engine as it passed, all three manufacturers' power-units exhibiting subtly different tones that were a joy to differentiate for an anorak like me.
What F1 fans ought to remember is that the noise produced by engines made in any particular era was ultimately just a byproduct of the pursuit of performance. There were no artificial methods for making the engines sound better; that's just how they sounded anyway - the association with heroic feats on-track is what made the old noise so emotive. As this new era of F1 progresses, so fans will eventually learn to love its soundtrack.
The race itself hardly ranked among the most thrilling of the year, and it was a big shame that Rosberg's error (don't be fooled by the conspiracy theorists - if Mercedes really wanted Hamilton to win, there are many more fool-proof and less obvious methods of fixing a result that a team could deploy) denied us the latest installment in the brewing rivalry between the title protagonists.
Still, there was no shortage of wheel-banging further down the order to keep me gripped for the whole 53 laps of action. The race, as is often the case at Monza, felt like it was over very quickly - in 79 minutes in fact, as opposed to 102 at Hungary last year. Perhaps it's time that the FIA established a minimum length for Grands Prix as well as a maximum one.
A lack of success for Ferrari didn't appear to dampen the atmosphere too much in my grandstand, which unexpectedly featured a mammoth Danish contingent who whooped with joy when their hero Kevin Magnussen snatched fifth on the grid in the dying moments of qualifying. When they realised that the McLaren driver had made his way up to second at the start of the race, the grandstand virtually erupted!
The travelling Danes would have felt very aggrieved at Magnussen's penalty for forcing Valtteri Bottas off the road at the first chicane, and rightly so. The incident mirrored that of Hamilton and Rosberg at Spa, with Bottas cast in the role of the latter. That the Finn decided to straight-line the chicane instead of risk a collision with the car he was trying to pass - as Rosberg did two weeks beforehand - should not have earned Magnussen a penalty.
Nevertheless, that was the only real sour note of the weekend, which culminated in getting to walk the track from the start/finish straight up to the Roggia chicane after the legendary track invasion had died down. Again, actually being able to walk the very tarmac on which the F1 drivers had been battling half an hour beforehand was an incredible sensory experience.
Anything not nailed down got pinched by the tifosi, including all the bollards at the first chicane that Rosberg had to negotiate when he relinquished the lead of the race to Hamilton, many of the Rolex and Santander advertising hoardings, and - most hilariously of all - the enormous polystyrene marker at the start of the DRS zone, which was being manhandled by a Ferrari fan at Porta Garibaldi station!
It was a fitting end to a hugely enjoyable weekend at Monza, a track to which I certainly hope to return in the near future. If you're contemplating going abroad to watch a Grand Prix next year, it's one I would urge you to consider visiting.
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