The first Italian Grand Prix was held at the Circuito Fascia D’Oro at Brescia-Montichiari in Lombardy. The event was staged on a 17.3 km circuit on 4 September 1921. Only Fiat and Ballot cars participated in the race which the Frenchman Joules Goux won. The Monza circuit was ready in time for the next Grand Prix. Autodromo Nazionale di Monza   Autodromo Nazionale di Monza, the national racing circuit of Italy was under construction.  when the first Grand Prix was held. When ready, it was the third permanent motor racing circuit in the world behind Brookland in England and Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the USA.   Italian motorsport heroes, Vincenzo Lancia and Felice Nazarro laid the lst two bricks at  Autodromo Nazionale di Monza. The circuit is located near the city of Monza, north of Milan. Built inside the Royal Villa of Monza park, the circuit is 10 km long. The first Grand Prin was held at Monza on 10 September 1922.   The first Grand Prix at Monza was won by the home racer Pietro Bordino. The subsequent four races were also won by Italian drivers while the Italian Grand Prix in 1927 was won by the Frenchman Roberto Benoist.   The first of the many tragedies that the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza was to witness, befell the circuit during the 1928 event. Italians Emilio Materassi and Giulio Foresti were in a fierce battle on the fast circuit when Materassi’s front wheel brushed against Foresti’s rear wheel.   Materassi’s lost control of his Bugatti and cleared a 15” foot wide ditch and ploughed into an unprotected grandstand. Materassi died and so did 27 spectators in the grandstand opposite the pits. Twenty- six spectators were injured as a result of the accident   The Italian Grand Prix was halted for the next two years because of the disaster.  The race returned to the Monza circuit in 1931. The event, held in late May instead of the routine early September, saw joint winners. Guiseppe Campari and Tazio Nuvolari, both of whom shared an Alfa Romeo were declared winners.   On 10 September 1933, another tragedy struck at the Monza circuit. An oil spill on the track caused Baconin Borzacchini to lose control of his Maserati. His car flipped over many times and Borzacchini was stuck under the car when it came to rest. He later died in a hospital.   Guiseppe Campari, who swerved to avoid the Maserati went over the banking and crashed his Alfa Romeo into trees next to the track. Campari died from a broken neck on the spot. On the eighth lap, Stanislas Czaykowski’s car engine blew up. Unable to put out the fire on his body caused by the ensuing fire, Czaykowski burned to death.   The disaster caused the AIACR, the then governing body of Grands Prix, to reflect on the safety needed at racing venues. The 1934 Italian Grand Prix was held on a shorter version of the Florio circuit at the Monza circuit.   The new Florio circuit was deemed too slow and the two subsequent races were held on the proper Florio circuit with some chicanes introduced. Mercedes and Auto Union competed in these races and the Silver Arrows won all the races through to 1937.   The 1937 event was staged on a street circuit in Livorno. The Grand Prix returned to Monza in 1938 and was won by the Tazio Nuvolari. Nuvolari was piloting a mid-engine Auto Union car. The beginning of the World War meant that the Italian Grand Prix was not held till 1947.   The Grand Prix returned to a new venue, the Fairgrounds Park in the city of Portello in 1947. Carlo Felice Trossi won the race while Giovanni Bracco went off the track killing five spectators. The 1948 race was held in Valentino Park in Turin. The event returned to Monza in 1949 and stayed there till 1979.