Daily TribuneA 2016 STUDY SUGGESTED THAT COLD ATLANTIC ANOMALIES WERE A ‘COMMON PRECURSOR’ TO MAJOR HEATWAVES THAT HAD HIT EUROPE SINCE THE 1980S.
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VESPA enthusiasts wave a United States flag as they ride during the parade of the Vespa World Days marking the 80th anniversary of the iconic Italian brand of scooters in Rome on 27 June 2026.
PHOTOGRAPH courtesy of ALBERTO PIZZOLI/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
ROME, Italy (AFP) — An icon of the Italian way of life, the Vespa was celebrating its 80th birthday on Saturday, as thousands of riders paraded through Rome on the legendary scooters.
A few donned biker jackets despite the scorching heat while others opted for T-shirts, the hum of their machines filling the capital with a colorful buzz. Organizers said some 25,000 Vespas took part in the parade.
Some rode solo, others in pairs, whizzing through the city center — even along streets usually closed to private traffic.
“We brought our Vespa over from the United States. We traveled through Germany, then via Vienna ... and I then rode my Vespa from Austria to Rome, a journey that took two weeks,” Texas resident David Baamonde told Agence France-PresseTV on Saturday.
“For me, the Vespa is a way of life, a sense of carefree living, enjoying the moment, discovering scenery — it’s a lifestyle,” said Italian Andrea Musco.
Featuring in cinema classics like “Roman Holiday” and “La Dolce Vita,” the Vespa has a long association with the Eternal City.
“The history of the Vespa, which accompanies the birth and rise of Italy after the Second World War, is in a way an iconic symbol of our history, of our culture,” said Roberto Gualtieri, the Italian capital’s mayor.
‘Vespa is special’
The Vespa, which means “wasp” in Italian — a reference to the sound of its engine — was born on 23 April 1946, when the first patent for its manufacture was filed in Italy by Piaggio. It is still produced at the Pontedera site in Tuscany.
It was “the symbol of an Italy emerging from the war and getting back on its feet,” Gualtieri said, adding that he was “proud” that Piaggio had decided to organize the anniversary in the city.
“Telling the story of 80 years of the Vespa is, in part, telling the story of how Rome has managed to capture the world’s imagination,” particularly through cinema, he said.
The celebrations began on Thursday with the inauguration of a “Vespa Village” at the Foro Italico, a sports complex in the north of the capital, and culminated on Saturday with the grand parade through the streets of Rome.
Social significance
Vespa’s history is intertwined with “the history of a country emerging from the post-war period, that wants to move, that wants to get back up,” Matteo Colaninno, executive chairman of the Piaggio group, said at the presentation of the celebrations.
“And this desire to move is not just physical mobility,” it is also “a kind of drive toward economic mobility and above all social mobility,” he said.
“Today, the Vespa has become a global phenomenon; we are on the verge of 20 million vehicles produced” since 1946, Colaninno said.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, photographed on Thursday sitting on a white Vespa in the reception rooms of Palazzo Chigi, the main government building, praised the famous scooter as representing not only “industrial excellence” but also “one of the most cherished Italian icons in the world, a symbol of Italian creativity and style.”
Illac Diaz, originally from the Philippines, said that “the nice thing about the Vespa is you bring friendship.”
“There’s no place where you park without people becoming friends. So Vespa is like a family,” said the 52-yearold, who has just bought a house in Trieste, in northern Italy, where he plans to acquire another Vespa as soon as possible.
