This year is 90 years since Ducati was founded.
Ducati was established in 1926, and began producing motorcycles in 1946.
The company quickly developed a reputation for innovative design and state of the art technology including the Desmodromic valve timing it uses in its engines.
Ducati joined the Audi Group in 2012, and reported record sales of more than 54,800 new motorcycles in 2015.
The company now has over 1,500 employees, with 137 new staff hired in the course of the past year and around 100 planned for 2016.
As part of its 90th anniversary celebrations, the Ducati Museum in Bologna is being completely renovated.
The museum was opened in 1988 and is visited by over 40,000 enthusiasts each year.
Work is under way, and the museum will be opened for World Ducati Week being held at the Misano World Circuit from 1 to 3 July. Work will be completed on the museum by September.
WDW2016 will be the climax of all the 90th anniversary celebrations, and at that event the winner of the “Custom Rumble” competition will be announced. Australia has an entrant in that competition.
Then on the 4th July, which is the exact birthday of the company, celebrations will begin at the factory and conclude with the start of a highly symbolic motorcycle world tour.
The tour will start in Borgo Panigale and continue across Europe, along the legendary Trans-Siberian route through Russia, Mongolia, China and then to Japan, and finally to the United States before returning to Europe.
It will revisit and retrace the places and roads where the most significant pages of Ducati history were written.
Seven relay riders will take the new Multistrada 1200 Enduro over seven stages and cover a total of nearly 32,000 km before returning to Borgo Panigale by the 5th December.
It will conclude after covering the last few miles on Strada Statale della Futa, in the hills outside Bologna where many Ducati models were developed and road-tested.
The riders will be chosen by Ducati from thousands of fans, and will carry a special torch designed by the Ducati Style Centre.
Ducati is also producing a range of accessories and apparel all featuring the 90th anniversary logo for customers worldwide.