Lived 20+ yrs in Italy. Just moved back here last year.
The only time guzzi sold alot of bikes domestically in the last 70yrs was when the Army and police bought them under contract. The large V twins were never really popular. The low value of the Lira propped up the sale of smaller bikes (350's, 500's) for the tiered licensing system during the 70's-2000, but the Euro undercut that pretty quickly. Nowadays the used police bikes have pretty much gone out of the system and the small blocks that worked well for city commuters are forbidden in the city due to anti pollution laws and replaced by large displacement scooters. Additionally most Italians don't have multiple bikes due to registration costs (bollo di circulazione). I had a '99 Honda NX650 registered locally, cost just over $200/yr for registration and $350/yr for liability insurance. My small Fiat was $400/yr for registration. Then there is the biannual cost of inspection at $60. Additionally Italy changed its vehicle registration laws several years ago. Prior, if you had an old bike, you could keep your tag & title and turn in your registration papers and not have to pay tax (radiata del'ufficio). Of course you couldn't ride it on the street, but at least you had it. Now if you have it you MUST pay the bollo cost. So, considering the costs, if you're only gonna have one bike, your probably gonna get a big trailie (GS, Tenere, etc) of if a Sport guy Jap or Ducati. Germany has a much larger Guzzi market.
