Excellent article on the Mille Miglia from Colin Bezant.
After the first few hundred km, I and some others were around 12-18 hours behind for most of the rest of the ride and so our highs and lows were largely reversed. His great food and holiday atmosphere at Bolsano were our 2 in the morning trying to get a couple of hours nap on plastic chairs on in a cold clammy lakeside with continual noise, with only the dreaded rice salad - the thought of it still triggers quesy feelings - to eat before we climbed on our bikes at 4.30.
Once you got out of the flatlands - I agree with Colin they looked much better at night, they looked like a duller version of the Fens in daylight, the scenery was fantastic. It was a shame to have to do any of it by night.