Vespa turns 70

Design classic and symbol of the “dolce vita”, the Vespa turns 70 on Saturday and Italy’s most celebrated scooter is buzzing along nicely after tripling sales in the past decade.

It was on a Vespa that Gregory Peck pursued Audrey Hepburn in “Roman Holiday”, the 1953 film that helped make the marque synonomous globally with the Roman capital. But it was actually in Florence that the wasp-shaped two-wheeler was born, Enrico Piaggio having registered the patent in the Tuscan capital on April 23, 1946.

Seventy years later, more than 18 million models have been sold and Piaggio's objective of reinventing the family aeronautical company has been realised and then some. AFP