Miataland: An Italian resort dedicated to Mazda’s game-changing roadster

By: Alex Affat, Unique Cars magazine

Date: 16.07.2019

Home to allegedly the largest private MX-5 collection, you can rent a number of cars to explore the Italian hills

If you’re thinking of an automotive holiday in Italy, you’d probably be thinking of visiting Ferrari in Maranello, Lamborghini in Bologna – or even the futuristic headquarters of Pagani in Atelier.

But nestled in the hills of Umbria, sits Miataland – a fully operational resort converted from a 17^th century farmhouse, and home to what is said to be the largest private collection of Mazda MX-5s in the world.

Miataland was established by Andrea Mancini in 2017, after devoting his life to collecting Mazda’s game-changing sports car.

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Everything in the resort is MX-5-themed, with rooms and suites named after MX-5 colours rather than numbers.

Even traditional hotel room keys are forgone in exchange for car keys. The facility is decorated in various MX-5 inspired art, as well as littered with furniture based off the little roadster.

A large portion of Mancini’s MX-5 collection is housed on the property; from all generations and including various special and limited editions from around the world.

Some European-only models are represented, in the form of a first-generation BBR Turbo, a second-gen Miracle Edition and a third-gen OpenRace Italia.

Mancini also holds a number of rare North American variants such as: a 2004 Mazdaspeed NB Turbo, a 1999 10^th Anniversary NB 6-speed, and a V8-powered first-generation built by Monster Miata in the US.

However, the cornerstone of Mancini’s collection is a number of rare Japanese-market models; with a one-of-500 1994 Eunos RS-Limited, a 1993 Eunos V Special Type II all now calling Italy home. There’s also a few M2-branded MX-5s (a short-lived 90s high-end branding experiment by Mazda Japan): including one of just 300 M2 1001 roadsters, a more luxury-oriented 1002, and a "street-competition" 1028.

The best part about the resort however, is that when you’re not lounging by the pool – you can grab the keys of a number of Mancini’s vehicles to go explore the gorgeous Italian hills around Umbria, or tootle down to Lakes Corbara and Trasimeno, or the larger Lago di Corbara wine region.

A Mazda tragic through and through, there’s also a number of non-MX-5s housed at the resort, including a Mazda Familia GT-R, FC and FD generation RX-7s, and an RX-8.

We may have to book a stay of our own! We’ll see you there!

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