The Piaggio Museum is the largest Italian museum dedicated to the motorcycle and one of the largest in Europe.
Vespa, models with a futuristic design
It’s 5,000 square meters displaying more than 250 models including Vespa, Ape, Ciao, mopeds and sports brands of the Piaggio group: Aprilia, Gilera and Moto Guzzi (a hundred world titles in motorcycling sports).
Some of the first Vespa models were so futuristic that even today they seem to come from the future: even those who are not passionate about motors cannot but be surprised by the variety and evolution of their design.
The Museum
Now in its 20th year of activity with almost 700,000 visitors, the Piaggio Museum is the largest and most complete Italian museum dedicated to two-wheelers and houses unique examples that tell not only the story of the Piaggio Group and its brands, but also retrace the history of mobility and the industrial and social development of the Country.
Cultural and educational activities
Among the activities carried out by the Piaggio Foundation, there are art exhibitions, which represent an ideal accompaniment to the permanent collection, music shows and conventions. The rooms that constituted one of the oldest nuclei of the industrial complex housed the works of Dalì, Picasso, Burri, Fattori, Modigliani, Carrà and other contemporary artists. The museum pays particular attention to schools, with a full didactic offer .
The history of Vespa
In 1882, the cavalier Enrico Piaggio, when he founded the company that still bears his name, could not imagine that his initial company, started in Sestri Ponente as a sawmill for timber, would transform into the iconic company of Pontedera, producer of scooters and vehicles that are still widespread.
He could not even foresee that the Vespa would be born after numerous industrial conversions, after railway carriages, motorboats, airplanes and even after the factories of his grandson of the same name were destroyed by the bombings of the Second World War. But the post-war reconstruction, the desire for innovation and, above all, the happy intuitions of the Abruzzo aeronautical engineer Corradino D’Ascanio, gave life to this motor vehicle with aerodynamic shapes that glided on the not yet asphalted roads of Italy at the time.
The tapered shape immediately made Enrico Piaggio exclaim: “It looks like a Vespa!”.