Vespa Turns 60 This Month!
Italy is celebrating the creation of a two-wheel style icon that has won hearts worldwide.
AUDREY HEPBURN and Jennifer Lopez were pleased to pose on one. It has inspired pop songs and films, and Italians are eager to hail its sleek design as the undisputed symbol of national pride.
The Vespa turns 60 this month and is being feted with an exhibition celebrating the two-wheeled embodiment of la dolce vita. “The key to the Vespa is that it has a soul,” said Roberto Leardi, head of the Italian Vespa Club. “It is not just a piece of machinery.”
The scooter features as an “icon of Italian design” in Vrooooom, an exhibition that opened this week at Riccione.
The enduring national love affair with the Vespa is partly because of its simple but aesthetically pleasing design, including the voluptuously rounded and flared tail that inspired its name (Vespa is Italian for wasp).
It inspires fierce affection in Italians old enough to remember the heady days of la dolce vita, when, after war and fascism, the Vespa gave young Italian couples the freedom to head for the seaside or the country at an affordable price.
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