- More than €50 million invested in Moto Guzzi’s historic Mandello del Lario home
- New 3000m² museum houses more than 160 restored motorcycles
- New factory can produce more than 30,000 motorcycles annually
Heading to Europe? Moto Guzzi has just given Kiwi motorcyclists another reason to put Lake Como on the itinerary, opening a spectacular new factory, museum and visitor experience at its historic Mandello del Lario home.
If Italy is on your European travel plans, there’s now another destination every motorcyclist should consider adding to the itinerary.
More than €50 million and almost five years of work have transformed Moto Guzzi’s historic Mandello del Lario home into a state-of-the-art motorcycle factory, museum and visitor destination.
Moto Guzzi has officially opened the doors to its dramatically redeveloped home on the shores of Lake Como, combining a thoroughly modern motorcycle production facility with a new 3000-square-metre museum celebrating more than a century of the famous Italian marque.
Importantly, Moto Guzzi hasn’t abandoned the place where its story began. The new facility remains on the same Mandello del Lario site where the company was founded in 1921 and where Guzzis have been manufactured ever since.
Piaggio Group has spent more than €50 million on the project over almost five years, increasing the total factory area to 38,000 square metres and boosting annual production capacity to more than 30,000 motorcycles.
And while the historic red gate on Via Parodi remains, what lies behind it is now very different.
Old Home, New Technology
The redevelopment includes 5500 square metres of new industrial buildings and completely new automated engine assembly lines.
The final motorcycle assembly area is connected to the engine facility by a fully robotised conveyor system, while finished motorcycles are moved to final testing using autonomous ground drones developed by Piaggio Fast Forward. The idea is to reduce the physical demands placed on workers while improving efficiency and safety.
Sustainability has also played a major role, with the new facility featuring 1300 square metres of photovoltaic panels, extensive use of natural light and Class A building standards.
Despite all that new technology, preserving the character of Moto Guzzi’s historic home has clearly been important.
The project was led by internationally renowned architect Greg Lynn and designed to integrate the new buildings into the existing Mandello site rather than simply bulldozing the past.
A New Home For Moto Guzzi History
Arguably even more interesting for Guzzi enthusiasts is the completely new Moto Guzzi Museum.
Covering 3000 square metres, the collection includes more than 160 restored motorcycles, beginning with the unique G.P. prototype that marked the start of the Moto Guzzi story and continuing through production motorcycles, famous road models and the company’s considerable racing history.
Rather than simply lining motorcycles up chronologically, the museum includes sections devoted to racing, travel, cinema, art and military and police motorcycles.
Visitors will even be able to look from the museum into the new assembly facility and watch current Moto Guzzis being built.
More Than A Factory Tour
The redevelopment is also intended to turn Mandello del Lario into a destination in its own right.
More than 4200 square metres of new public areas include pedestrianised outdoor spaces, two tree-lined squares, a large central piazza featuring a monumental Moto Guzzi eagle mosaic, café, Motoplex store, workshop and event areas and a new auditorium.
The famous Galleria del Vento wind tunnel has also been restored.
For Piaggio Group CEO Michele Colaninno, the investment is about protecting Moto Guzzi’s extraordinary history while giving the brand a home appropriate for its future.
“Anyone who rides a Moto Guzzi is riding through over a century of Italian history.”
The opening coincides with Moto Guzzi World Days 2026, running from September 3–6 and expected to bring tens of thousands of Guzzi owners and motorcycle enthusiasts to Mandello del Lario. The programme includes museum and factory access, archive visits, motorcycle test rides and the traditional mass ride into Mandello.
For a company that has called the same small Italian town home for 105 years, the redevelopment is an impressive balancing act: preserving the history that makes Moto Guzzi special while creating a thoroughly modern facility capable of building its next generation of motorcycles.
For Kiwi riders planning a European trip, Mandello del Lario was already one of those names that carried a bit of motorcycling magic. With Lake Como on the doorstep, more than 160 historic motorcycles to see and the opportunity to watch new Moto Guzzis being built, there’s now an even better excuse to put it on the itinerary.
For more information on the new facility, head to www.piaggiogroup.com
Moto Guzzi Factory Gallery
