This year marks a milestone for the little Italian scooter we all love. The iconic vespa that embodies the spirit of Italy is freedom, style and nostalgia on two wheels. To mark the occasion, the biggest celebration in history will take place in Rome from 25th to 28th June. Thousands of vespa riders from around the world are expected in the Eternal City.

It remains as beloved today as the day it was conceived eighty years ago in 1946. It is a rare example of a vehicle that has survived and stayed true to its original concept. Every generation has its cultural references, its music, its literature, its movies . . . and its vespa.

The story of Rinaldo Piaggio is a good story. It is a story about a man possessed with brilliance and character, not a poet, a saint nor a navigator, but a man with an uncanny business sense.

He was born in 1864, the son of a shipbuilder and trader. In 1884, at the age of 20, he founded a ship furniture manufacturing company. He soon had work from all of the big shipyards in Genoa. Every ship launched out of Liguria had his furnishings on board.

His business interests expanded from the sea to the land. Trains became his new business and carpenters specialised in the repair and construction of carriages for the largest train companies in Italy. The war came and factories were taken over. Rinaldo saw an opportunity and started repairing seaplanes and then went on to build military seaplanes.

The man was a dynamic entrepreneur. He was unquestionably one of Italy’s most important industrialists. He founded the first Italian airline in 1926.

In 1938 Rinaldo died and his two sons took over. Armando was responsible for the production facilities in Genova which focused mainly on the aviation and railway industries. Enrico managed the sites in Pisa and Pontedera and nurtured an ambitious project: to help make mobility affordable and accessible for Italians by designing a simple, low cost, easy to use vehicle. To develop his idea, Enrico called Corradino D’Ascanio, the brilliant aeronautical engineer who invented the first modern helicopter.

Corradino didn’t love motorbikes. He designed the scooter thinking about how he would use it. When Enrico first saw it, he exclaimed “It looks like a wasp!” Vespa means wasp in Italian. And so the legend was born.

The Vespa 98 was introduced in 1946. With its step-through frame, enclosed bodywork and flat floorboard, the vespa was unlike anything else on the road.

Piaggio has six industrial factories. Vespas are made in the factory in Pontedera, a province of Pisa. In the first year of production in 1946, the factory distributed 2,484 vespas. That number was destined to grow rapidly, reaching 60,000 in 1950. In 1956, exactly ten years after the vespa was born, one million vespas were manufactured.

The Vespa 125 is the version that made the vespa famous all over the world. It was presented in Milan on 30 December 1950 and could be found in dealerships afterwards. Sales increased sharply with the release of the movie Roman Holiday in 1953 with the 125 starring in legendary scenes with Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn scootering around the historic centre of Rome.

It is a legend on two wheels that has captured the hearts of millions around the world. It is a reminder that life is meant to be enjoyed, that style matters, and that sometimes the best way to get where you’re going is on the back of a vespa!

It happens on every Ciao Italy Tour. We are in our own Italian movie as we scooter past the Colosseum on the way to neighbourhoods without tourists, reaching Via Appia Antica, the first great highway of the Roman world built in 312 BC. We then scooter to ancient sites most tourists don’t see before heading to the top of Gianicolo Hill where ancient Rome is laid out before our eyes. Four hours of vespa freedom, feeling safe and secure on the back of the vespa as our driver navigates the streets of Rome is the quintessential experience that becomes an indelible memory. It’s such a highlight that many of my travellers who return for another Ciao Italy tour do the vespa tour a second time . . . and a third time. It’s that much fun!

Ci vediamo la prossima settimana.

Deb