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Leolandia

Capriate San Gervasio, Italy

“Surprisingly large family-oriented theme park near Milan”

My heart always skips a beat when I spot an amusement park from an aeroplane. In the past, I’ve been able to catch a glimpse of the perfectly circular road surrounding Disneyland Paris while flying high above France, and it’s easy to see the skyline of PortAventura when flying to or from Reus Airport. Furthermore, my eye was immediately caught by the distinctive red roof of Ferrari World while landing in Abu Dhabi. However, just a few theme parks are really designed to be viewed from above. I can actually think of only two exceptions. The first one is Belantis in Germany, where aerial views clearly show the contours of the European continent and the Mediterranean Sea. Number two is Leolandia, where they’ve recreated a surprisingly accurate map of Italy. No need to charter a plane to check if this is correct; just open Google Maps to admire it with your own eyes.

MINITALIA

A lake representing the Tyrrhenian and Adriatic Seas surround a boot-shaped peninsula with a length of approximately 755 feet (230 metres). Although this makes Leolandia’s Italy around 4,500 times smaller than the real deal, it’s still an impressive sight. This silhouette of Italy is obviously there for a reason. Leolandia opened in 1971 as Minitalia, a walk-through experience with miniatures of famous monuments and city scenes, which can be found in ‘correct’ locations on the map of Italy. The idea behind this compact trip through Italy is superb, yet we do have a couple of thoughts. Firstly, the miniatures weren’t in great condition during our 2026 trip. Paint was peeling off the walls and most moving parts seemed to be broken. Secondly, Minitalia offers absolutely no shade, making it quite an unpleasant place to be on a hot summer’s day. I realise that mature trees would ruin the whole perspective of this part of the park, but we would’ve really appreciated some places to escape the burning sun.

ROLLER COASTERS

It’s a bit of a shame, but you won’t attract hundreds of thousands of visitors with a collection of scale models nowadays. Fortunately, Leolandia has gradually evolved into a fully-fledged theme park with classic attractions, including four roller coasters. And rest assured: these aren’t miniature versions, but full-scale coasters. The main attraction of the Cowboy Town area is Mine Train, a powered coaster manufactured by Zamperla. It turns out to be a pleasant family coaster that stands out mainly because of its spread-out layout. Still, I would’ve preferred to see a bit more theming, as the ride is placed on a flat and rather barren plot of land. I’m certainly not asking for a copy of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, but I’m convinced that a few rock formations and/or waterfalls could significantly elevate the overall experience.

Most enthusiasts know Preston & Barbieri as a manufacturer of simple, fairground-style roller coasters. Here at Leolandia, however, we see a Preston & Barbieri ride that looks and feel considerably more mature. Vroom features two lift hills and it also makes use separate load and unload stations. The ride itself turned out to be more than okay, despite its relatively short track length. Vroom treated us to a smooth ride with surprisingly good theming. Vroom has been themed around Masha and the Bear, an IP we’ve previously seen at Land of Legends in Turkey. The best elements of the whole experience are the ‘underground’ station, the aircraft-shaped carriages and the many cartoon characters surrounding the track. Very cute.

You can clearly notice that Leolandia has been investing a lot of money in upgrading older areas. Recently, the focus has been mainly on a circus area in the north-eastern corner of the park. Crazy Circus features a whole host of flat rides, but our attention is drawn primarily to the area’s two roller coasters. And believe it or not: these are both spinning coasters with a red and beige colour scheme. The older of the two is Twister Mountain, a spinning wild mouse built by Zamperla. In terms of layout, the ride shows many similarities to the Reverchon models found at many European funfairs, albeit in a slightly smaller version.

Twister Mountain is a fine coaster, but it has clearly been outclassed by the nearby Reversum, which opened in 2026. Interestingly, this is the only roller coaster at Leolandia that wasn’t built by an Italian company. For Reversum, the park hired Mack Rides, arguably the leading spinning coaster manufacturer in today’s theme park industry. Leolandia opted for a replica of Sierra Sidewinder (Knott’s Berry Farm) and that proved to be an excellent choice. Not only is it a surprisingly fast and smooth ride, but it also turned out to be far more intense than we predicted. Especially the second half of the ride, where the train races through a 540° low-to-the-ground helix, creates some forces you wouldn’t expect on a family coaster. Reversum is therefore, without a doubt, Leolandia’s most intense roller coaster. However, thanks to its minimum height requirement of 41 inches (105 cm), it’s still suitable for a broad audience.

WATER RIDES

We visited Leolandia on a day with temperatures reaching 34°C and that was quite a struggle. Fortunately, the park offers plenty of ways to cool down. We saw several water play areas and the western-themed section of the park features a log flume called Gold River. There’s nothing wrong with classic log flumes, but unfortunately this isn’t the most exciting of its kind. The layout is rather uninspiring and the theming is very limited. Fortunately – just like at Europa-Park and Bobbejaanland – there is some nice interaction with the powered coaster.

The cowboy town surrounding Gold River and the adjacent pirate area are relatively predictable in terms of theming. Nevertheless, Leolandia also features a few land with more original decoration. This includes the circus zone and Draghi e Leggende, a Mediterranean village centred around dragons. The facades in this area are beautiful and the (mostly static) dragon statues are impressive eye-catchers. One of these dragons watches over a splash battle called Il Tesoro di Rocca Mediterranea, whilst several other fire-breathing creatures can be found at the Rapide dei Draghi attraction. This rafting ride was built by Zamperla and it was originally themed to Leonardo da Vinci. You can still see this in the architecture of the station and in the small-scale version of Da Vinci’s Tank, which regularly shoots water at riders. Rapide dei Draghi is actually one of Leolandia’s most elaborately themed attractions. And this may sound strange, but it’s also one of the most intense rides in the park. The winding descent causes the boats to spin incredibly fast, making this a rather disorientating experience.

OTHER EXPERIENCES

Leolandia was once owned by ride manufacturer Zamperla… and it shows. A significant number of Leolandia’s flat rides comes from the Zamperla catalogue. In the pirate area, for example, you’ll find Galeone (a pirate ship), Trinchetto (a family-oriented drop tower) and the jumping frogs of Raganelle Sentinelle. The cowboy area is home to Carovana Western (a Crazy Bus) and Wild Avvoltoi, a carousel whose seats remind me of those on Zamperla’s dreadful Volare flying coasters. The Crazy Circus zone offers by far the most interesting selection of flat rides. This land features Swingin’ Chairs (a classic wave swinger), Blade Storm (one of those trendy Nebulaz rides), the impressive-looking Deltaplanet (a ride with swinging hang gliders), Big Spin (a Disk’o) and a 131-feet-tall free fall tower that’s designed to look like a Human Cannonball. Despite the fact that these are all relatively standard attractions, I’d like to praise Leolandia for the excellent decoration of these machines.

I’m pretty sure that they weren’t delivered by Zamperla, but snakes, iguanas and fish also form an important part of Leolandia’s lineup. They can be found in the Acquario and Rettilario, two indoor areas near the park entrance. I’m a big fan of the air conditioning in the enclosed environments, but I must admit that these animal exhibits give a rather dated and dreary impression. If you’re in the mood for even more animal encounters after visiting the aquarium and reptile house, you can also head to Leolandia’s very own petting zoo.

WORTH A VISIT?

At the moment, I can’t say that Leolandia poses any serious competition to major Italian theme parks such as Gardaland and Mirabilandia. However, Leolandia certainly offers a lovely theme park experience for families with younger children. I arrived at Leolandia with rather low expectations, but I fell in love with the park’s charm and atmosphere. Besides, we encountered an excellent attraction lineup (with Reversum, Vroom and Rapide dei Draghi standing out) and theming surpasses that of many other European amusement parks. The dragon zone is beautiful, the Masha and the Bear area looks great, and I also really appreciated the cheerful energy of Crazy Circus. If Leolandia falls short in one area, it’s indoor offerings. After all, there’s a lack of covered attractions where visitors can take shelter from rain or sweltering heat. As far as I’m concerned, a medium-sized dark ride would be the ideal addition for the near future.

Have you had the chance to visit Leolandia yet? What was your favourite themed land? And was Minitalia in the same poor condition during your visit? Share your thoughts in the comments section at the bottom of this page.