Classic Vespa Scooters

Everyone knows that cool, Italian image of the young man cruising Rome on his shiny Vespa. Perhaps it was Audrey Hepburn in 1952's Roman Holiday, or maybe it was the Mods in the 1970's that solidified the Vespa as a symbol of freedom and the epitome of cool. Either way, new, classic or vintage Vespas turn heads everywhere from the hip college town bar scene to the corporate campus.

The Vespa has a long, interesting history, that I'm not going to go into here, but I will say that Piaggio, an innovator in transportation since 1884, started building the classic scooters after WWII. They're inspired by aeronautical designs, and feature a unibody, steel chassis. The body style, with a heavier rear and slim front, reminded Piaggio himself of “a wasp,” and so the Vespa, wasp in Italian, was born.

Brought to popularity by the fuel crisis in the late 1970's, vintage Vespas have excellent gas mileage. Understandably then, with today's rising fuel costs, the classic Vespa, and other scooters, have once again gained increasing popularity. Many Vespas may get 70-100 miles per gallon of gas.

Vespas undeniable style and class appeals to even the most rich and famous, who probably aren't worrying about gas prices. Many stars tool around Hollywood on a Vespa. A few of the Vespa-lovers are Robert De Niro, Gweneth Paltrow and Kevin Spacey.