60 Years Vespa
Posted on September 1, 2006 - Filed Under Artikel VIO | Leave a Comment
Cool at any age: the
Vespa hits 60
Italy is celebrating the creation of a two-wheel style icon that has won
hearts worldwide
AUDREY HEPBURN and
Jennifer Lopez were pleased to pose on one. It has inspired pop songs and films,
and Italians are eager to hail its sleek design as the undisputed symbol of
national pride.
The Vespa turns 60
this month and is being feted with an exhibition celebrating the two-wheeled
embodiment of la dolce vita. ?The key to the Vespa is that it has a
soul,? said Roberto Leardi, head of the Italian Vespa Club. ?It is not just a
piece of machinery.?
|
|
The scooter features
as an ?icon of Italian design? in Vrooooom, an exhibition that opened
this week at Riccione.
The enduring national
love affair with the Vespa is partly because of its simple but aesthetically
pleasing design, including the voluptuously rounded and flared tail that
inspired its name (Vespa is Italian for wasp).
It inspires fierce
affection in Italians old enough to remember the heady days of la dolce vita,
when, after war and fascism, the Vespa gave young Italian couples the freedom to
head for the seaside or the country at an affordable price.
The Vespa was created
in April 1946 by Enrico Piaggio, an aircraft manufacturer looking for new
postwar markets, and Corradino D?Ascanio, the aeronautical engineer and
helicopter designer.
Its elevation to the
status of national icon came in 1953, with William Wyler?s film Roman Holiday,
in which Gregory Peck takes Audrey Hepburn for a ride around Rome on a Vespa.
Other film stars who subsequently posed on one include Ursula Andress, Ingrid
Bergman, Anthony Quinn, Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jennifer Lopez.
By the 1950s, Vespas
were being manufactured under licence in 180 countries, including Britain, where
they became an essential element of Mod culture.
Part of the Vespa?s
success was that women felt comfortable on one. As La Repubblica noted,
it was ?a tool of emancipation ? and seduction?. Even at this time of deep
political division and dire economic predictions, Italians can unite around the
nostalgia it inspires.
Since 1946, some 17
million have been sold, and 40 per cent are still made at the Piaggio plant at
Pontedera in northern Italy. Although the Vespa has been through 140 models, its
design remains much the same.
For young Italians
the Vespa still symbolises independence: the group Lunapop celebrate the joys of
escaping on a Vespa in a recent song entitled Fuori Citta (Out of the
City). Some of Italy?s leading writers, including Umberto Eco, have contributed
nostalgic essays to a book entitled The Cult of the Vespa.
?I will never be
parted from my Vespa,? said Mauro De Rossi, a butcher, as he polished his
25-year-old PX 200 model. ?My courting days are over, but there is nothing like
a Vespa in Rome traffic or for getting out of town.?
Does he let his
daughter borrow it? ?You must be joking. She has one of her own.?
STREETS AHEAD
Barbie has a blue
Vespa, which her publicists say saves money, space and the planet
Vespas were
celebrated by the Mods of the 1960s, who feature prominently in the film
Quadrophenia
Part of the Vespa?s
appeal in the 1950s and 1960s was the calendar showing models in bikinis draped
over their scooters
Giorgio Bettinelli
rode a Vespa from Melbourne to Cape Town in 1996
Comments
Leave a Reply
60 Years Vespa
Posted on September 1, 2006 - Filed Under Berita / Agenda /Event | Leave a Comment
Cool at any age: the
Vespa hits 60
Italy is celebrating the creation of a two-wheel style icon that has won
hearts worldwide
AUDREY HEPBURN and
Jennifer Lopez were pleased to pose on one. It has inspired pop songs and films,
and Italians are eager to hail its sleek design as the undisputed symbol of
national pride.
The Vespa turns 60
this month and is being feted with an exhibition celebrating the two-wheeled
embodiment of la dolce vita. ?The key to the Vespa is that it has a
soul,? said Roberto Leardi, head of the Italian Vespa Club. ?It is not just a
piece of machinery.?
|
|
The scooter features
as an ?icon of Italian design? in Vrooooom, an exhibition that opened
this week at Riccione.
The enduring national
love affair with the Vespa is partly because of its simple but aesthetically
pleasing design, including the voluptuously rounded and flared tail that
inspired its name (Vespa is Italian for wasp).
It inspires fierce
affection in Italians old enough to remember the heady days of la dolce vita,
when, after war and fascism, the Vespa gave young Italian couples the freedom to
head for the seaside or the country at an affordable price.
The Vespa was created
in April 1946 by Enrico Piaggio, an aircraft manufacturer looking for new
postwar markets, and Corradino D?Ascanio, the aeronautical engineer and
helicopter designer.
Its elevation to the
status of national icon came in 1953, with William Wyler?s film Roman Holiday,
in which Gregory Peck takes Audrey Hepburn for a ride around Rome on a Vespa.
Other film stars who subsequently posed on one include Ursula Andress, Ingrid
Bergman, Anthony Quinn, Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jennifer Lopez.
By the 1950s, Vespas
were being manufactured under licence in 180 countries, including Britain, where
they became an essential element of Mod culture.
Part of the Vespa?s
success was that women felt comfortable on one. As La Repubblica noted,
it was ?a tool of emancipation ? and seduction?. Even at this time of deep
political division and dire economic predictions, Italians can unite around the
nostalgia it inspires.
Since 1946, some 17
million have been sold, and 40 per cent are still made at the Piaggio plant at
Pontedera in northern Italy. Although the Vespa has been through 140 models, its
design remains much the same.
For young Italians
the Vespa still symbolises independence: the group Lunapop celebrate the joys of
escaping on a Vespa in a recent song entitled Fuori Citta (Out of the
City). Some of Italy?s leading writers, including Umberto Eco, have contributed
nostalgic essays to a book entitled The Cult of the Vespa.
?I will never be
parted from my Vespa,? said Mauro De Rossi, a butcher, as he polished his
25-year-old PX 200 model. ?My courting days are over, but there is nothing like
a Vespa in Rome traffic or for getting out of town.?
Does he let his
daughter borrow it? ?You must be joking. She has one of her own.?
STREETS AHEAD
Barbie has a blue
Vespa, which her publicists say saves money, space and the planet
Vespas were
celebrated by the Mods of the 1960s, who feature prominently in the film
Quadrophenia
Part of the Vespa?s
appeal in the 1950s and 1960s was the calendar showing models in bikinis draped
over their scooters
Giorgio Bettinelli
rode a Vespa from Melbourne to Cape Town in 1996
Comments
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