Sundays on Lake Como are special for the locals. All the motorcycle enthusiasts come out to play. Young, old, modern high performance machines and classic or vintage motorcycles can all be seen.

Italy as we all know is famous for its passion for all things road and water worthy. Motorcyles are not exception with Moto Guzzi, Ducati and Agusta being three of the most famous and most successful road and track racing manufacturers.

Lake Como is only a short drive away from the Moto Guzzi Museum at Mendello de Lario, where enthusiasts congregate at weekends to meet, visit and generally hang out with people of the same passion.

The Museum is home to a magnificent historical, technical and cultural heritage in the formof an impressive collection of over 150 exhibits representing production and sports motorcycles, experimental prototypes and engines illustrating the history of an Italian motorcycle that has become a worldwide legend.

The Museum houses a number of unique exhibits, including the first ever motorcycle built by Carlo Guzzi in 1919, the only machine ever to carry the initials G.P. (Guzzi-Parodi), alongside some of the most famous motorcycles in the world, like the extraordinary Otto Cilindri 500 from 1957, brainchild of designer Giulio Cesare Carcano.

The museum’s production bike section boasts over 80 machines which illustrate the history of manufacturing at Mandello del Lario and offer a clear picture of Italy’s social and economic development. Among these is the legendary Norge of 1928, the first ever ‘gran turismo’ in the history of motorcycling, designed by Carlo Guzzi and his brother Giuseppe. Other fascinating exhibits include the Sport and GT Guzzis of the 1930s, the Airone, which became the most common motorcycle in Italy between 1939 and 1957, and the Falcone, of which so many motorcyclists dreamed throughout the 1950s. .
Moto Guzzi’s place in history was also ensured by a series of lightweight machines that brought mass mobility to Italy after the war, like the 65 cc “Guzzino” and the Galletto. And we can never forget the bikes that redefined the entire concept of sports riding in the late sixties with the introduction of the V7 Sport and the now famous 90° V twin engine.

Another section of the museum is dedicated to the machines that wrote so many chapters in the magnificent racing history of Mandello del Lario. These include the Guzzi 4V of 1924, the bike with which Guido Mentasti won the first European title on the Monza circuit, Omobono Tenni’s Bicilindrica 500 of 1946, the Guzzi 350 that became “World Champion” in 1955. From more recent times there is even the V7 Record, the machine derived from the standard V7, that established 19 speed records at Monza in June and October 1969.

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