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Down the stairs below a motorcycle rental shop near the Colosseum, Rome’s heat and roaring traffic give way to a calm, cool reverence in the form of a temple beneath Italy’s most iconic two-wheeled vehicle.
Parked in chronological order are machines that look like metal and chrome sculptures: Vespas from 1946 onwards, their narrow waists and curved bodies are immediately recognizable.
Last week in Rome, their popularity was heard even more than usual, with thousands of Vespa riders marching across the city to celebrate its 80th anniversary. They streamed through the sweltering summer heat past the Colosseum, the Circus Maximus and the ruins of the Baths of Caracalla – some wearing ancient leather helmets, others holding waving flags.
Vespa was about freedom. It was about being modern.– Claudio Sarra
But the celebration was also a reminder of how impossible Vespa’s story is: a scooter born from the ruins of war that, within just a few years, became one of Italy’s most enduring symbols of freedom, romance and style.
The museum’s walls are covered with old advertising posters, vintage rides and photos of Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck diving through Rome in the 1953 film. Roman Holiday.
“The Vespa was about freedom,” said Claudio Sarra, who has operated a Vespa rental business and small museum for three decades. “It was about being modern.”
Sarra grew up skiing on her aunt’s Vespa in a small Italian town in the 1970s. He says it was not just a way to get from one place to another, but it was a way to enter the whole world.
Post-war design
Before making Vespas, manufacturer Piaggio built military aircraft. Its plant in Pontedera, Tuscany, was one of Italy’s most important aerospace manufacturers.
After the Second World War, founder Enrico Piaggio looked at a country with bombed roads, broken railroads, damaged factories and millions of people who needed a cheap way to get around. He commissioned aeronautical engineer Corradino D’Ascanio to design a solution.
“Italy’s industrial production facilities were blown up during the war,” he said, “Producing this new motorcycle was an important part of the launch of the Italian economy after the war.”
D’Ascanio, who reportedly hated motorcycles, designed something completely new: a lightweight, air-powered scooter with an enclosed engine and frame that could easily be ridden by women in skirts. At a time when Italian women had just won the right to vote, the Vespa offered mobility, independence and a machine that didn’t ask them to throw a leg over a heavy frame.
“The first Vespa commercials featured a woman,” said Sarra. “You could call it a kind of feminine design.”
The production model was presented at the Turin Motor Show in April 1946. According to company tradition, when Piaggio first laid eyes on the prototype, with its hourglass waist and roaring engine, he exclaimed, “Sembra una vespa!” – looks like a wasp! The name stands.
Within a year, Piaggio was selling tens of thousands. By the 1950s, the scooter was synonymous with glamour, turning even the humdrum commute into an act of style. Roman Holiday spread that love to a global audience.
‘Vespa unites Italy’
Piaggio says more than 19 million Vespas have been produced since 1946, in more than 100 countries.
Among the riders during the recent celebrations were David Mumunadai and Dawn Brooks Mumundai from Texas, riding two-wheelers on a post-war Vespa painted in original mimetico green – a military shade born of leftover aircraft paint.
The couple owns 13 vintage Vespas.
“We love Vespas – we met riding Vespas in New Orleans 16 years ago,” he said.
“It’s about representation … not just male riders,” said Shirley Russell, who traveled from Brisbane, Australia, along with three other Vespa enthusiasts. “It includes.”
The anniversary comes at a difficult time for Vespa’s parent company. Piaggio reported lower sales and profits in 2025 as demand softened in Europe, North America and Asia.
Anyway, in Rome this weekend, you never know.
“The Vespa embodies Italy,” said Cuban burlesque artist Doris Gomez Rodriguez, dressed as a 1950s throwback girl at the festival in Rome.
80 years after it was born from the ruins of the war, the wasps still cry.
