The Mille Miglia and the Frames Made for It
Why the world's most beautiful race begins where we do — and what to wear when you watch it.
Every May, Brescia stops being a normal city.
For four days, Viale Venezia turns into the start line of the Mille Miglia — the thousand-mile race that the founder of Ferrari once called "the most beautiful race in the world." Cars from 1927 to 1957 — Alfa Romeos, Maseratis, Mercedes, Jaguars, Aston Martins — line up in front of the cathedral, engines warm, leather seats creaking, drivers in flat caps and pre-war goggles waiting to be flagged off through the medieval gates of our city.
We know it well. UV Studio Brescia is a few minutes' walk from the start line.
A Personal Note
Last year, we managed to get into the paddock. Walking between those cars before the race — touching nothing, photographing everything — was one of the most moving days of our lives.
Then, on the morning of the start, our son Alexander was born.
He arrived as the engines were roaring through Brescia. We didn't see the cars leave that year. But we like to think his first sound, somewhere in the distance, was the rumble of a thousand-mile race beginning.
The Mille Miglia is in our city. It is also, now, in our family story.
What Is the Mille Miglia, Really?
Between 1927 and 1957, the Mille Miglia was an actual race. Drivers crossed Italy from Brescia to Rome and back, on public roads, at full speed. People watched from balconies, sidewalks, fields. There were crashes. There were legends. There were Stirling Moss, Juan Manuel Fangio, Tazio Nuvolari — and there was the moment, in 1957, when the race was stopped after a fatal accident, and never raced as a competition again.
What survives today is the Mille Miglia storica — a five-day rally for original cars that competed in the historic race, or were eligible for it. It is not about speed. It is about preservation. About cars older than most of us, still running, still being driven across the same roads they knew sixty years ago.
The 2026 edition runs from 9 to 13 June, starting and ending in Brescia. The first car leaves Viale Venezia at 11:30 on Tuesday 9 June. The last one will cross the finish line on Saturday 13 June, just a few hundred metres from where they started.
And then, in 2027, the Mille Miglia turns one hundred. The very first edition began at 8 a.m. on 26 March 1927, from this same Viale Venezia. We are, in other words, watching the run-up to a centenary.
The People Who Drive It
Jonathan, our co-founder, has spent thirty years in the world of independent eyewear, and along the way he has come to know some of the names you'll see in the entry list — or the names of those who came before.
Among them: Nick Mason, the drummer of Pink Floyd, who has competed in the Mille Miglia in his Ferrari 250 GTO. Rowan Atkinson, the actor known to most of the world as Mr Bean, who has driven the rally in his McLaren F1. And on the 2026 entry list, Carlo Cracco — the chef Italians know from kitchens and television — who will drive a 1951 Lancia Aurelia B20 GT through the same roads.
Collectors, drivers, quiet enthusiasts — people for whom these cars are not investments but companions.
What they all have in common is a way of looking at objects. They want things made by people, not factories. They want things that last. They want things with a story.
That is also, we think, what brings them to independent eyewear.
What Do You Wear at the Mille Miglia?
For a race born in 1927, the answer is not whatever is in fashion this season.
We have curated three frames — three answers, really — for the people watching, driving, or simply standing on the start line in Brescia at dawn on a June morning.
For the Driver — F1 Eyewear
The official Formula 1® Eyewear collection wasn't made for the Mille Miglia. It was made for modern motorsport. But the lineage is the same: precision, durability, lenses engineered for changing light at speed.
For drivers who want something built for actual driving — carbon fibre temples, mineral lenses, polarized — the F1 Trackside or Gold Collection sits perfectly under a flat cap or a helmet. It is the only frame on this list with motorsport DNA in its construction.
For the Spectator — Eye Respect
If the Mille Miglia is about preservation, Eye Respect is its eyewear equivalent.
Hand-finished in England in small batches. Italian acetate. The same frame shapes — the Alex III, the Ana III, the Steven III — refined over years rather than reinvented every season. These are frames you wear watching cars older than your grandparents go past, and that fit the moment exactly because they too are made the slow way.
Worn for years. Unhurried. Recognisable to the people who know.
For the Côte d'Azur Crowd — Monaco by Eye Respect
The Mille Miglia ends in Brescia, but the cars that race it — and the people who drive them — often end up further south. Monaco. The Italian Riviera. Capri.
Monaco by Eye Respect is the collection for that crowd. Frames named after the neighbourhoods of the Côte d'Azur — Larvotto, La Condamine, Monte Carlo. Slightly more dramatic. Slightly more lacquer. Made for the people who collect places as well as cars.
"None hold a candle to the style, fit and finish. Worn daily 7 years. 11/10." — Chris Dage, on the Monte Carlo
If You Are Coming to Brescia for the Race
UV Studio is a few minutes from Viale Venezia, where the cars line up.
If you're in town for the start — 9 June 2026 — come find us at Via Fratelli Dandolo 5/7. The espresso is on us. The frames are on the counter. The conversation, if you have stories about cars or eyewear or Brescia, is welcome.
We will probably not have Alexander's first birthday quite figured out yet. But we will be open.
UV Ultimate Vision Via Fratelli Dandolo 5/7, Brescia Free worldwide shipping — uvultimatevision.com
Tags: Mille Miglia, Brescia, eyewear, F1 Eyewear, Eye Respect, Monaco by Eye Respect, motorsport, independent eyewear, vintage cars, Nick Mason, Rowan Atkinson
