Eighty years by the lake: Moto Guzzi's 80th anniversary celebration. (Riding around).(Italian motorcycle manufacturer)(Brief Article)

Publication: Rider

Publication Date: 01-APR-02

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COPYRIGHT 2002 Ehlert Publishing Group

At the end of World War I, on the pristine alpine shores of Italy's Lake Como, two men hatched a plan. Outside their factory more than 80 years later, I wondered if their plan included the sea of rain-soaked Cordura and leather surrounding me. Probably not, but I'm sure that Giorgio Parodi and Carlo Guzzi wouldn't have minded that 20,000 Guzzisti from 22 countries gathered to celebrate their first creation, the 1921 Moto Guzzi "Normale."

For centuries Northern Italy's lake region has been the subject of books and movies such as A Month by the Lake. Snowcapped Alps shoot 3,000 feet up from clear waters. Manicured gardens built around 19th-century marble and stone villas stretch along the lake's edge. Luckily for us low-born types, some of these glamorous habitats are now pensiones.

This isn't where you expect to find manufacturing. And yet in Mandello del Lario...

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