I didn't know I wanted it. I certainly didn't know that I needed it. A little over 2 years ago, I sat down with my wife and planned the excursion for the year: We were going to take The General (My 1990 Mazda Miata) up to Deals Gap and the tail of the Dragon in North Carolina for the annual Miatas at the Gap celebration for a week in August. Plans were set. Hotels were booked. Everything at the ready, then I found it: Miataland. A genuine Miata owners paradise in the Umbria region of central Italy. Miatas for days, and for a price, you could drive them. Knowing my wifes love of Italy and their wine, I front loaded a question and put the decision in her lap: "Hey babe, we COULD go to North Carolina this year, OOOORRRR we could do this little trip to Italy." I didn't have to wait long for a response.
It took nearly two full years of planning and saving and arranging before we could actually take the trip. A journey around the world is slightly more logistically, and financially involved than a trip to the Smokey Mountains. Arrangements were made, and everything was put into place to head to Italy. We made our plans for early October, through a tour company that specializes in driving tours around the world. That way we could maximize our time in Italy with a minimum of planning required for the 3 weeks we had planned to spend on the continent.
It was about a 2 hour drive from our hotel in Rome, to the resort itself nestled into the hills of Umbria. There were 7 slots for the tour and all of them were filled. We took shuttles from Rome to the resort. While this seems like an insignificant detail, it becomes important when placed into context: We had one unnamed individual in our group show up with what amounted to the black plague. He also decided to share it with the entire group by not covering his mouth when he coughed, touching all the food, and generally violating peoples personal space. I'm going to take the time to say this; If you are sick, postpone the trip, or make alternate plans. By infecting the entire group, this one individual cost the collective thousands of dollars in doctors bills, medications and cancelled plans.
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As we rolled through the hamlet of Piedicolle and up over a hilltop, down a gravel driveway, Miataland came into view. But as the vans rolled to a stop, there was no time to soak in the stunning view. Bags were dropped, and every group was Introduced to Andrea, the proprietor of the resort, and immediately thrust into one of 7 waiting MX-5's that spanned 3 decades of production. The next stop: Drive yourselves to the local restaurant for lunch. I recognized this for what it was, and I was impressed by the drill instructor tactic of it.
This is a good time to point out another couple of important points. Andrea has, what has been called the worlds largest private collection of 51 MX-5's, that cover the 32 years of production of the vehicle. Not a one of these cars are granny cars or barn finds. Every vehicle in his collection is a rare or collector version of that production model. (More on that later) These are NOT rental cars. They are well maintained, loved, and treasured collectors items. You are coming to visit one of the foremost collection of Miatas in the world and given a rare opportunity to drive a hand full of them. And more importantly, not a single vehicle on the property has an automatic transmission. Every morning, Andrea would diligently get up before everyone else, and personally inspect every vehicle that was road bound. Checking the fluids and tires and road worthiness of every vehicle that would be traveling.
The immediate trek into town was a driving test. It yielded results almost immediately when one couple proved after 3 or 4 kilometers that they did not have a grasp on how a manual transmission worked, and almost slid backward into the vehicle behind them. This particular couple spent the entire rest of their tour riding shotgun in other vehicles, nary to operate another MX-5 the entire trip. As the group drove to the restaurant, they were also being judged on how they were treating their individually assigned cars. This would be important later as the group had to be re-addressed to explain to them that these were not rentals, and many of them were irreplaceable. You are expected to act like adults and treat these cars with respect.
A half dozen suites are available in various configurations at the resort, and each of them are decorated in varying themes of MX-5 and their generations. Our suite for the week was a NA themed room, and the details put into its decoration were well thought out.
The frame rails of the bed were even cut to match the frame rail design of the first generations of Miata. The towels were monogramed and there was even Miata branded shampoo.
In the U.S. the Miata is lampooned by some as a "hairdressers car". Lets face it, between it's marginal power plant and the stance bois, the MX-5 really is low hanging fruit in the humor target department. However, in Europe, the MX is quite a rare vehicle. It's actually a bit larger than your average commuter car, and the spyder configuration makes it a bit of a luxury expense that's entirely impractical in most places on the continent. In our 3 weeks in Europe, we only spotted 4 other MX-5's, and one was in the Brussels Autoworld Museum. However, Andrea and his partner Claudias Miataland hid 51 Splendid examples for us to peruse. The collection ranged from a:
1 of 4 Yamamoto series ND,
A first Gen NA with a factory Ford V8 crammed under the hood.
An exceptionally rare factory supercharged NA
Miataland is itself a Bed and Breakfast resort. You can book reservations and tours directly through their website and through the owners. We opted to use one of their partner tour companies to get a longer stay with a more thorough driving experience through the hills of the region. In our weeks time, we drove nearly 1000 kilometers through Umbria, Sienna, Chianti and Tuscany, every day driving a different car. The hills, mountains and back roads of the region gave Deals Gap a run for it's money. Every single day was one breathtaking view after another, while challenging the drivers to the twists and turns of Italy's beautiful mountain roads. All this, while being punctuated by the scheduled stops to sample the best food and wine the regions had to offer.
Make no mistake, all of this comes at a cost. One that probably puts most car enthusiasts out of range of the trip. So much so, that I would put that there really was only one other person in our tour group that was there for the cars. (At 53, I was the youngest member of our tour group) Most everyone else was there likely because they read about a lively tour through Tuscany drinking wine and could afford the trip. So I am going to lay this out there now: If you have no skill driving a manual transmission, stay in the United States. Every other country on earth still uses manual transmission vehicles. If you still insist on going, I would suggest a 'Hop on-Hop off" bus tour. That way you can ride around and not kill anyone else. I would suggest a guided bicycle tour, however, all of them are manual shift as well, and you may injure yourself.
The Miataland experience is surely a once in a lifetime trip. It's also an investment. Depending on how you want to approach it, the entire experience can range from a minimum of 10 thousand dollars and on up. We budgeted about 15k, and that was after the cost of our airplane tickets to Europe. There a couple of ways that you can schedule a Miataland excursion.
