Give me a Vespa and I'll take you on vacation
To go on the vacation of a lifetime, you don't need anything: all you need is a Vespa Special and good company. Trust us!
Edoardo Hensenberger
Contributor
"How great is it to ride around the hills of Bologna? If you have a Vespa Special that takes your troubles away?" Cesare Cremonini sang in a song titled 50 Special, destined, like its protagonist, to be successful all over the world.
The Second World War had just ended and Italy was still lost in the rubble of a conflict that had brought it to its knees when, on April 23, 1946 in Florence, a patent for a new motorcycle, the Vespa 98, like the cubic centimeters of its engine, was filed by Piaggio&Co. of Enrico Piaggio.
It all stemmed from the desire of the now ex-producer of aeronautical and war vehicles to create a motorcycle that would stand out from all that had been seen up to that moment, and to do so he entrusted the project to Corradino d'Ascanio, an aeronautical engineer who hated motorcycles.
It is precisely the latter's hatred that led him to create a comfortable and simple means of transport, on which to sit normally, with the tank moved to the back and not between the legs and the gearbox directly on the handlebars, thus making the new Vespa a means of transport open to any occasion, and above all very comfortable even for women dressed in an elegant manner.
From then on the first "insect" of Piaggio has acquired more and more fame in the world, accomplice the great success of Roman Holiday with Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn that made the Vespa a real Hollywood diva bringing it carefree in the imagination of all.
But as in the art of courtship, every now and then you have to keep trying, with less timid and more vigorous pushes on the crank until the Vespa's humming remains in the background without fading; at that moment your heart fills with joy because once the engine has started to sing it is as if she had given herself to you and given you permission to take her for a ride.
And then you're off, with gears engaged from first to fourth, you'll find yourself speeding at about 45km/h, an excruciating sound comes out of the engine under your butt and you're the happiest person in the world... be careful when braking though, you know the drum is not the best of brakes, and the dirt road in the countryside certainly won't help you.
The Vespa is not just a means of transport, the Vespa is passion, simplicity, style, authenticity, and when Enrico Piaggio saw the vehicle for the first time 75 years ago he exclaimed "It looks like a wasp" certainly did not imagine that it would remain in the hearts of all for so long.
In short, "give me a Special, the summer is coming, give me a Vespa and I'll take you on vacation".
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