History of Piaggio

Rinaldo Piaggio founded Piaggio in Genoa in 1884. The company was based at Sestri Ponente and produced ship fittings. In a few years the young Rinaldo had expanded into railway fittings and aeronautics and opened a new factory at Finale Ligure.

The next step was the establishment of Piaggio in Tuscany. Factories were set up in Pisa in 1917 and in Pontedera in 1924. By World War II the company was one of the most important European aeronautics, railway, steamship and transatlantic liner manufacturers.

Rinaldo’s son Enrico envisaged and produced the Vespa in 1946. It was the vehicle that symbolized post-war reconstruction in Italy. In 1948 the Ape was produced and delineated the success of the goods transport sector. Vespa and Ape were a splendid binomial that characterized the post-war years of Italian and world reconstruction.

In the mid-seventies Piaggio made the moped a success. Ciao, Bravo and Sì were some of the models in this line of light, elegant vehicles that conquered the young.

From the Vespa in 1946 to the Beverly in 2001, Piaggio has designed and sold over one hundred scooter models. They are proof of the creativity and entrepreneurial instinct of generations of men and women who wrote the history of the company and with it the economic, social and civil history of the territory Piaggio operates in.