Vespa

Seven or eight years ago, while on summer vacation in northern Italy, Gianluca Baldo was stung by a wasp, and he was never the same again. A friend surprised him with the gift of a vintage 1976 PX 200 Vespa—because vespa means “wasp” in Italian. It was not the same model as the Vespa scooters […]

The Vespa 946 (www.vespaUSA.com, http://www.Vespa-Canada.ca), the brand’s first all-new model in six years, evokes the prototype from 1946 that the Italian industrialist Enrico Piaggio’s namesake company built when he requested a simple vehicle that he could ride without dirtying his clothes. Piaggio thought the resulting two-wheeled scooter resembled a wasp (vespa in Italian), thus the […]

Conceived in the aftermath of World War II, at a time when many European countries were attempting to rebuild and restore tattered, downtrodden economies, the modern-day scooter became a vehicle that redefined the streets of many old-world cities. Scooters provided many with inexpensive and reliable transportation, and made the case that creative and stylish two-wheeled […]

Mahogany runabouts from the 1960s receive their due from the Digital Veneer Tribute Vespa (www.digitalveneer.com), a limited-edition scooter designed by Digital Veneer. The New Zealand–based company manufactures a lightweight material that can be used instead of wood in the construction of boats, aircraft, and autos. The Tribute’s body is made from this material, which, in […]

Slight, stylish Vespa scooters offered a way for frugal Italians to get around following World War II, but Vespa’s new GTS 300 Super takes a decidedly “more is more” approach to step-through transportation. Though it wears the unthreatening Vespa silhouette, the GTS 300 Super is the fastest scooter to come from the Italian company. Features […]

For many, the indelible image of the Vespa involves a shapely ingenue, her tresses flowing in the spring air, zipping through the roundabouts of a European capital aboard the charming two-wheeler. This perception contradicts the reality of the latest Vespa: the $4,900 Granturismo, the first new Vespa since 1996 and the largest, fastest, and most […]