Giacomo Agostini's Sala Trofei: Ago's Artefacts

I make no apologies for publishing this long story about the man who is arguably the greatest rider of all time. Whether your vote goes instead to Hailwood or Rossi or even Marquez, there can be no doubt that Giacomo Agostini stands shoulder to shoulder with them. Here, Alan Cathcart visits Agostini’s new Sala Dei Trofeo and hears some wonderful reminiscences from the man himself.

- Cathcart

Giacomo Agostini is motorcycling royalty, so being granted an audience with the 15-times World Champion at his hilltop home in the historic Northern Italian city of Bergamo, is a bit like having tea with the Queen at Windsor Castle. But the most successful Grand Prix road racer of all time, with 122 GP race wins (plus one World F750 victory) and 159 podiums from 186 starts, with 117 fastest laps, has now teamed up with his daughter Vittoria to offer a half-day visit to his newly-opened Sala dei Trofei (trophy room) - “It’s not a Museum, not while I’m still alive!” insists Ago. This contains a vast array of memorabilia acquired during his stellar 15-year racing career, including as many of the 364 race trophies he won on two wheels as he could squeeze in. The Visitors Package includes this visit, followed by dinner with Ago, and overnight at the family’s elegant nearby Villa Vittoria B&B [see sidebar].

“I had all my trophies piled up in a small room in the house, and didn’t even know how many I had – I thought around 250 or so, but it turned out to be almost one for every day of the year!” says Ago. “My wife Maria and I had decided to downsize our house now that the children had left home, so we bought a very pretty smaller villa nearby, and prepared to move there. But then we couldn’t get the price we wanted for our present house, so in mid-2019 I decided to turn the new one into a B&B which Vittoria could run, while making a Sala Trofei on the site of a garage we had at the bottom of our current driveway. That way I could finally start to enjoy all the memories and mementoes I have.”