The Vespisthi invaded Rome this week, and if you don’t know who or what a Vespisti is, it may seem worrying, but it is not a type of Goth warrior. Vespist is a Vespa owner, and is celebrating 80 years of the most beloved moped on two wheels estimated 25,000 Of those, 67 countries paraded in Rome.
The gathering hosted a series of 160 models produced during the 80 years that Vespa was on the market, According to Piaggio Group. Some riders were brave enough to bring their extremely rare Vespa 98 to the streets of Rome, the first production model of Vespa. It has a two-stroke single cylinder 98 cc engine which was introduced in 1946.
The ride toured Rome like Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck’s excursion à la “Roman Holiday.” Although this journey also includes A loop around the Colosseum, Piazza Venezia, Altare Della Patria and Fori Imperiali before concluding in the “Vespa Village” at the Foro Italico, where the four-day party welcomed more than 50,000 visitors with music, shopping and street food.
The ‘staccato exhaust racket’ that keeps Italy moving
It is a fitting tribute to the vehicle that has kept Italy moving since its inception after World War II. Piaggio was an aircraft manufacturer at the time with a factory in Pontadora, but it was destroyed by wartime bombing. Due to the need to create a rigid axle, they looked towards scooters. The company’s first real prototype, the MP6, had a “wasp-like” design, which earned it the Vespa name. From there, the Vespa 98 model was released to the public and Italians happily adopted it.
AP shared An article from the 1950s describing the Vespa’s presence in Italy said that the scooter’s “‘staccato exhaust racket’ sounded like the Indy 500 in downtown Rome.” It says, “There is probably no noisier scooter in the world. …The scooter teaches visitors to look all four ways at once when crossing the street.”
Luckily, Vespas aren’t making as much noise today as the brand has finally ditched the two-stroke engines and started using more uniform four-stroke engines. But the design, which has evolved with the changing times, has remained timeless through each of its 19 million units sold today.
