The largest motorcycle museum in Italy is re-opening, after shutting down because of COVID-19 restrictions. And, if you aren’t able to hop on a flight to Europe for a visit, you can now visit the Piaggio Group museum from your own home.

The Piaggio Group is one of the largest motorcycle museums in Europe, and the largest in Italy, because it contains machines from such a wide range of manufacturers. Along with Piaggio scooters, the Piaggio Group also has Moto Guzzi, Aprilia, Vespa and Gilera under its umbrella. That’s a lot of history! Along with basic collections of all those marques, the museum also has special racing and art displays, and even a collection of Ape three-wheelers. It sounds like a lot of unheralded, under-publicized fun, which describes most things from the Piaggio Group.

The museum originally opened in 2000; it’s based in the town of Pontedera, in an old Piaggio factory that was renovated to house the collection. The museum saw a massive overhaul in 2018, with a large addition. Now, it has almost 5,000 square metres of exhibition space. Thanks to current coronavirus pandemic restrictions, groups of 10 are smaller are admitted to the museum in-person.

There’s no restriction on virtual attendance, though! To start the virtual tour, head to the museum’s website and click on the Virtual Tour option (this link should work). There’s a lot of information about all the bikes, trikes and scooters in the 3D online tour; it would be nice to maybe get a better look at the bikes themselves, but frankly, it’s impressive that the underdog Piaggio Group was able to build this museum at all, and offer virtual tours.

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