Tens of thousands of onlookers watched more than 10,000 Vespa scooters fill Rome’s historic streets Saturday, with riders arriving from across Europe, the U.K., the U.S. and beyond to celebrate the iconic scooter’s 80th anniversary.
When more than 10,000 Vespas putt-putt-putted around the Colosseum and past the Roman Forum on Saturday, Rome didn’t just get a parade. It got a living, rolling reminder of a style that people here and far beyond still treat like something timeless.
Enthusiasts converged on the Eternal City’s cobblestone streets from across continental Europe. northern England. San Francisco. Australia’s Gold Coast. the Philippines and more. For a day. they say. familiar brands fell into the background—“Ferrari and Ducati were forgotten as the little Vespa left them in its dust. ” as the crowd buzzed along.
Natalie Dunand, a retiree from France celebrating her own 61st birthday, said her pull was about what Vespa represents. “The passion for Vespa is for the Italian style, freedom, the ’60s,” she said. “I love it.”
The scooter that won hearts through film culture now draws them for a different reason: the anniversary itself. Made world-famous by the 1953 film “Roman Holiday. ” when Gregory Peck gave Audrey Hepburn a romantic lift through Rome’s center. Vespas have also appeared in “The Talented Mr. Ripley” and. more recently. in the animated “Luca.” The brand’s name—Vespa. meaning “wasp” in Italian—has become shorthand for a look and an attitude.
For those on the street, it’s not just nostalgia, either. The movement is physical: curved lines that evoke a bygone era, and a vehicle that—riders say—makes strangers smile. Vespa is treated like a two-wheeled counterpart to the Volkswagen Beetle, instantly recognizable and constantly returned to.
The story of how it came to be is tied directly to postwar Italy. Piaggio, a major aircraft manufacturer whose Pontedera factory was destroyed by bombings during World War II, had to change gears. “Downshifting considerably,” Piaggio began producing scooters. Early targets included women. according to Davide Zanolini. Piaggio’s executive vice president of marketing. because women could ride while wearing long skirts without showing their legs. Zanolini described the design as more aligned with a “lady” than a man. telling The Associated Press in an interview: “The shape. the elegance. This very charming attitude of Vespa is much more of a lady than a man.”.
That early hit helped kickstart Italy’s economy, and soon Vespas spread everywhere. An AP article from 1950 captured the way the vehicles changed the soundscape of the city: downtown Rome reportedly began to sound like the Indy 500 because of the “staccato exhaust racket.” The same piece said scooters darting through Rome could impress motor-minded Americans as strongly as St. Peter’s or the Colosseum. and that the scooter “quickly teaches visitors to look four ways at once at street crossings.”.
On Thursday, those scenes started to return. Vespa aficionados arrived in large numbers and flooded streets across the city, traveling in groups and wearing matching T-shirts. At the parking lot outside Rome’s Stadium of the Marbles. organizers had rows upon rows of Vespas from the past eight decades. One visitor described the setting as a motorcycle rally—except “adorable.” Some scooters had flowers and stuffed animals.
Dunand’s Westie terrier rode behind her, with its fur cut short to cope with the heat. A man from Tokyo brought an 8-year-old daughter on the ride; the pair swapped their hometown club’s banner for an Italian one. Others traded stickers. and the Vespa logo tattooed on a German man’s left calf sat beside three words in flowery cursive: “La Dolce Vita” — The Sweet Life.
Even people not old enough to remember the earlier decades talked about the pull of that era. Many riders said they moved from bigger motorcycles to lighter. more manageable Vespas—plus the ease of automatic riding. with the accelerator on the hand grip. Andrew Walton. a 59-year-old truck driver who bought his first Vespa almost 20 years ago. put it simply: “You get on. twist. go. Doddle. Easy.” Walton had spent eight days riding from Newcastle: first with a ferry to Rotterdam. then following the Rhine River through Germany to Austria’s “Romantic Road. ” and finally down along Italy’s coast.
At the Stadium of the Marbles, Rome’s mayor cut the ribbon, and the energy changed from arrival to celebration. Visitors streamed in singing, chanting, and waving flags. Many headed straight to a gift shop. where they could buy items ranging from Vespa jackets and hats to Vespa blankets. water bottles and umbrellas. Still, many had their eyes on one thing early: a limited-edition helmet marked “80 Years of an Icon” on its side.
A photo retrospective offered scenes from the brand’s history that felt both classic and unexpectedly wide-ranging. It showed couples picnicking in a flowering field. seaside escapes with bikinis and a beachball. and road trips under the Mediterranean sun. It also included a scene most people wouldn’t picture at first: explorer Soren Nielsen reaching the Arctic Circle on a Vespa in 1963.
Piaggio’s collection showed up too. Pristine Vespas were displayed like models, drawing attention that often went to their glossy finishes instead of the marbles nearby.
Zanolini said the company has sold about 20 million Vespas worldwide since 1946, and that today they are sold in 110 countries. He added that in the U.S., they’re popular in Florida and California and gaining traction in places like Austin, but that the brand remains a niche product there.
That niche reality came with its own kind of momentum. Burke Sandman. whose family owns a 108-year-old car dealership in Indiana. told the AP in Rome that he bought his first Vespa about two decades ago. drawn initially by the sidecar. He said he couldn’t find resellers around and got in touch with Vespa to start moving them himself. Sandman has since moved about 1,000 Vespas across the U.S., keeping 15 for himself.
Inside the Vespa Village, he sounded almost stunned by how devoted people can get. “No one ever says anything bad about a Vespa. You know, it’s crazy,” Sandman said. “Everyone that trades other brands for a Vespa, they never go back. It’s just something about it. And everyone likes Italian stuff. I get a lot of people that come back from Europe, and they’ve got the bug.”.
The day in Rome offered a full circle of that idea. A scooter built out of wartime necessity became a symbol of escape. and now. 80 years later. its fans filled the streets—turning landmarks like the Colosseum and the Roman Forum into backdrops for the hum of engines and the steady grin of strangers looking on.
Vespa Rome Colosseum Roman Forum 80th anniversary Piaggio scooters Italy culture