The history of Vespa, an Italian icon

Ladies and gentlemen, a moment of attention, please. At this point of the program, a short advertising was to be aired for one of Italian most successful products of our time.

However, considering that the film scheduled today is very, very interesting, a work of high artistic and spectacular level, and also being the program already rich in other things, documentaries, current affairs, and so on.

For all these reasons, the Piaggio & Co, the joint stock company manufacturer of Vespa, the best-selling scooter in the world, has decided not to make any film advertising today. Thank you for your kind attention, and please accept my apologies.

Vespa was established in 1946 by the genius and creativity of engineer Corradino D'Ascanio, commissioned by Enrico Piaggio to create a product for utilitarian mobility, of low cost and aimed at the large public.

D'Ascanio did not like motorcycles: according to him, they were awkward, cumbersome, and they dirtied the riders and flat tires were difficult to change.

The engineer tried all possible solutions, drawing from the aviation expertise. He imagined a means with a bearing body, a direct-drive engine. To make driving easier, he thought to place the gearbox on the handlebars.

To facilitate the replacement of wheels he came up not with the usual fork, but a supporting arm similar to aircraft trolleys. And finally he devised a body capable of protecting the rider preventing him from getting dirty or losing position.

Decades before the spread of ergonomic studies, the riding position of Vespa was designed to be comfortably and surely seated. It took Corradino D'Ascanio only a few days to develop his idea and make the first project of Vespa.

The name of the vehicle, the story goes, was coined in April 1946 by Enrico Piaggio himself, who looking at the MP6 prototype, with its very large central part to accommodate the driver, and its narrow waist, exclaimed "It looks like a wasp!" And Vespa it was.

The next steps were so swift that they are perhaps unmatched in the world of transportation. On April 23, 1946 in Florence, Piaggio deposits the Vespa project at the Central Patent Office, and immediately series production started.

At first, the reactions of specialists were very cold. This vehicle was called directly "a jalopy". Customers however thought otherwise: just think that in June 1956 the one-millionth piece was produced.

Foreign markets as well look at the birth of the scooter with interest. The "Times" speaks of a completely Italian product, as was not seen since the Roman chariot.

Enrico Piaggio, not satisfied with the commercial success of Vespa, aims at creating more and more attention and interest around the product: hence in the early 1950s the foundation and spread of "Vespa Clubs" started.

On the "Italian Vespa Day" of 1951 as many as 20,000 Vespa enthusiasts gathered. Is 1950 the first Vespa calendar was born, featuring photos and glamorous female characters, so much so that it was imitated by Pirelli just a few years later.

Vespa is a commercial phenomenon that was born Italian, soon became European, and worldwide, like few other products of our country.

In its sixty years' history Vespa has also become a popular symbol of Italian style in the world, a symbol of absolute prestige if you think that it is on exhibition at the Guggenheims in New York and Bilbao, Bovou in Paris, and is also part of the MOMA collection.

Obviously, Vespa is a brand, an Italian brand among the most famous in the world. An emblem of attractiveness, musicality and independence that dozens of television and print advertising media use each year.

During the years of the rising economic boom, going on a Vespa was synonymous with freedom, agile exploitation of spaces and easier social relationships.

This scooter is now a cultural phenomenon that characterizes many generations, also thanks to successful advertising campaigns - just think of the famous "He who eats apples rides Vespa " - Vespa knows itself as one of the most significant symbols of a changing society.

Advertising!
- Oh, the Commendatore has a new secretary!
- How original!
- Who? He?
- No, you! See what glasses!
- Ah, it gives importance to him!
- What a convenience! What elegance! Yes, but...
- What is missing?
- Me! The Vespa!

[Song] Everybody looks at me, they want me to themselves, I hear them whispering, but you know who it is!
- It's me, the Vespa! -

Advertising!
- Eat apples! Ah, here we go again!
- Who... eats apples!

There are a lot of things that are worth doing. Vespa gives a twist to things. Vespa, Piaggio.

Vespa, your city vine...
- Me Vespa, you Jane

Hey Luke, don't be a jerk! I told you a thousand times that you cannot enter the beach on a Vespa!
- Sure!

Vespa's role in costume, not only Italian, is documented by the presence of the vehicle in hundreds of movies. In the fifties reports of foreign correspondents described Italy as "the country of Vespa".

And the period of "dolce vita" established an intimate marriage of Vespa, cinema, actresses and actors from overseas, which is still a key part of the experience of this product.

Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck in "Roman Holiday" in 1953 were just the first of a long series of international actors and actresses who over the years have raised Vespa to an icon of Italian style worldwide.

[Song] I go out of my room in a hurry, in inserted gear from first to fourth,
I must hurry I have to go to a party,
but let me first take a ride on my Vespa
give me a Special, the summer progresses
give me a Vespa and I'll take you on vacation...
But how nice it is to go around
with wings beneath our feet
if you have a Vespa Special that
takes away your problems
but how nice it is to go around
through the hills of Bologna
if you have a Vespa Special that
takes away your problems
And school does not go
but a Vespa, a woman, I do not have
I have a Vespa Sunday is already here
and a Vespa will take me
out of town

Cling firmly!