Always a big fan of the Vespa. Extremely excited when I got to see that many in my trips to Europe. Don't own a motorcycle license YET, but I do intend to later on.
"The Vespa (which means “wasp” in Italian) has evolved from a single model motor scooter manufactured in 1946 by Piaggio & Co. S.p.A. of Pontedera, Italy -- to a full line of scooters and one of seven companies today owned by Piaggio -- now Europe's largest manufacturer of two-wheeled vehicles and the world's fourth largest motorcycle manufacturer by unit sales.
No other product in history has taken humiliation, destruction and poverty and made them the stuff of dreams. Despite 20,000 mechanical changes, 120 different models and total sales of more than 16 million, it is still recognisable the same machine as the one that made its debut in April 1946.
Inside, though, everything has changed: the old two-stroke engine, as responsive and peppy as it was noisy and polluting, has given way to a clean, quiet four-stroke; the transmission is automatic. The can't tamper with the look too much - they can only tease and titivate it, adding leather seats, fiddling with the shape of the handlebars... "
Read on here
Vespa official website
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