Now a venerable icon of Italian style, the internationally known quintessential scooter - the Vespa - was once a two-wheeled revolution, offering mobility to everyone. Today it has come to symbolize scootering status, style, and freedom. As Vespa reaches its 60s without showing a wrinkle, this book celebrates its decades of incomparable spirit. In glowing images and words, the book shows Vespa in its many guises—as the two-wheeled vehicle of the post-war economic boom; as the symbol of the forward-charging ideas of the 1960s; appearing in romantic films such as Roman Holiday; and promoted in delirious ads that claimed, “Whoever Vespas, eats apples.” Decades of period ads and famous calendars are included, as well as technical and production information on every model ever built, including rare prototypes and variants. Each model is detailed in over 30 categories, from engine specs to production facts. Filled with stunning color photos and illustrations, the book is itself a stylish tribute to the iconic vehicle it celebrates. Author Giorgio Sarti knows Vespa, and this book is a thorough and thoroughly enchanting tribute to the scooter as it has sped through history, meaning something new to each generation, and in the process making its unique mode of personal transport synonymous with freedom. Officially licensed and includes a foreword from Piaggio Group President Roberto Colaninno.

Auto a due ruote del primo dopoguerra, bandiera della rivoluzione giovanile, acclamato simbolo di stile in equilibrio sulla tradizione. La Vespa è qualcosa di più che lo scooter più venduto nel mondo, o un significativo simbolo del design italiano: è un irripetibile fenomeno di costume che accompagna la nascita del Paese dal 1946 ad oggi. La storia di questo magico "tappeto volante" in Italia e nel mondo e l'esame dettagliato di numerosi modelli sono accompagnati da splendide fotografie originali. Edizione in lingua inglese.

April 1946 was the debut date of the revolutionary little two-wheel vehicle, which, as well as leaving an indelible mark on the history of transport, became a real cultural phenomenon to successive generations. Simple and elegant, practical and comfortable, these are some of the characteristics that have ensured the popular scooter an unrepeatable success, with 35,000 of them built in 1949 alone. Sixty-five years after its birth, the Vespa, of which over 17 million have been produced, has affirmed itself throughout the world. This book covers the fascinating epic of the Vespa, from its debut to the present day, through hundreds of pictures and invaluable documents of its various epochs.

Readers will fall for a side of Italy rarely seen with the just-turned-forty Peter Moore rattling around the country on the back of an ageing Vespa scooter — like himself, a little rough around the edges, and a bit slow in the mornings perhaps, but basically still OK.

During the So-Cal Mod revival of the mid-1980s, one teen's simple quest to buy a Vespa is about to turn into an absolute nightmare. It's 1985, and to say Tommy Daniels is Mod-obsessed is no understatement: buying a scooter is the ultimate goal of his young life. When he hits the road on his search, it will be the strangest, most shocking three days imaginable, and he'll encounter a host of colorful characters, including a jerk cop and the Mod girl of his dreams, but nothing's going to stand in his way. His is a story of wanting something so badly, you'll put everything on the line to get it. Along the way, each chapter introduces a soundtrack song from Tommy's Mod mixtape. Also included, "It's a Way of Life," an essay about the Mod revival in 1980s Southern California by Bart Mendoza, lead singer of the band Manual Scan, noted music journalist, and a prime player in the San Diego Mod scene. This prose novel includes a color image section featuring some prime Mod moments in California from the 1980s, as well as acclaimed artist Ralph Cosentino's cover for Dr. Harvey's Victor the Vespa, the fictional book written by a character in the story!

This appealingly quirky book captures the personality, individuality and style of the world of Vespa through an eye-catching array of period photographs, including Vespa’s imaginative promotional material. Celebrities and girls seem ever-present through the pages, but there is plenty of technical interest to satisfy mechanically minded Vespa enthusiasts. First published in 1993, the 2nd edition includes celebrity and quirky photos alongside the more standard shots illustrating model evolution.