Articles and Stories

May 3, 2016

Seventy years ago, in April of 1946, Enrico Piaggio filed for a patent on his Vespa scooter. The patent was approved by the end of 1946 and the product became a huge success. The company that built the Vespa originally manufactured airplanes. After World War II, the demand for airplanes was reduced considerably and, in order to stay in business, Enrico created the Vespa, the first motor scooter. When Enrico looked at his final design, he saw the small waist and the bigger rear on the scooter and thought that it resembled a wasp. Vespa means wasp in Italian and that is how the name was born.

The Vespa embodies an Italian lifestyle and became a symbol of freedom. Eventually everyone in Italy was riding a Vespa. The scooter caught on everywhere and soon was driven by people all over Europe.

Movie stars were seen driving Vespas. Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck were first seen in the movie Roman Holiday riding a Vespa together through the city of Rome. This popularity resulted in the sale of over 100,000 models.

John Wayne, Dean Martin, Marlon Brando, to name a few celebrities, each owned a Vespa. During the filming of Ben Hur in Rome, Charlton Heston drove a Vespa when he was not on the set filming.

Piaggio would eventually become one of the biggest manufacturers of two-wheel vehicles in the world.

The Piaggio Museum & Gift Shop is located next to the Vespa plant in Pontedera, near Pisa, Tuscany. Salvatore Dali customized a model in 1962, which is one of the many on display. The Miami Auto Museum in Florida claims to have the over 400 scooters in its collection, the biggest collection anywhere in the world.