The Museum of Vespa (and much more)
Tuscany has many symbols known all over the world: cities like Florence or Siena, areas like the Chianti, the Mugello or the Val d’Orcia, monuments as the Leaning Tower or the Ponte Vecchio, people like Leonardo da Vinci or Dante… But there is one symbol that not everybody knows that was born here, in Tuscany, too: the Vespa.
New Museum (2018)
Piaggio has made a great effort and in 2018 the new Piaggio Museum, completely restored and renewed, has been inaugurated. The museum is located right into the historical Piaggio factory in the city of Pontedera (between Florence and Pisa), a huge structure raised in the 1920’s, where the most famous scooter of the world was born and became a symbol of the industrial boom after WWII in Italy and Europe.
Even if the museum is enormous (around 5.000 sqm), very nice, clean, very complete and well maintained, (take note) the entrance to the museum is FREE! I personally think it’s a very good idea. So there are no excuses, this is an important stop when you visit Tuscany you can’t miss.
Vespa but not only
Obviously, the biggest part of the museum is dedicated to the Vespa scooter. You will find all kind of Vespas, old models, classics, new models, special customizations, limited editions, artistic versions from Dalì, Picasso… All presented in a very elegant and colourful way.
But there is much more, in the museum you’ll see around 250 units including other vehicles from the brands of the Piaggio group like: Aprilia, Gilera and Moto Guzzi that together have won 104 World championships in different categories (SBK, Trial, Supermoto…). A very interesting area of the museum for all the lovers of the Italian motorcycles and racing.
You will also find pieces of other important activities and vehicles produced by Piaggio such as the famous “Ape” (another Italian symbol) and projects of aeronautics and trains.
We consider this museum definitely worth a visit, you won’t regret it and will surely have good memories of it. And who knows if next stop will be a Piaggio dealer!
