Rome (AFP)
Who has not seen the poster of "Roman Holidays", film released in 1953 with Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck, will hardly understand the pride and the attachment of the Italians for their legendary Vespa, which celebrates Friday its 75 spring.
On the poster for this three-Oscar-winning romantic comedy, the two Hollywood stars ride a Vespa in front of the Colosseum, and in the film they spend a day crisscrossing, hair in the wind on their craft, the Eternal City.
The history of the Vespa dates back to April 23, 1946, when the first patent on its manufacture was filed in Italy.
Legend has it that the name Vespa (wasp in Italian) comes from an exclamation of Enrico Piaggio, founder of the brand of the same name ("it looks like a wasp", caused by the characteristic noise of the engine reminiscent of the buzzing of the car. 'insect.
Seventy-five years and 19 million copies after its birth, the Vespa, an icon of scooters, has lost none of its charm in the eyes of enthusiasts, despite the problems that its driving poses in Rome, in particular its unsuitable small wheels. with potholes and slippery cobblestones characteristic of the streets of the Italian capital.
"I've had a Vespa for 12 years, I'm on my third," Marco Guerrieri, a Roman accountant in his forties, told AFP.
"I wanted a two-wheeler that was more original than the Japanese scooters, in addition it is made of metal and not plastic, so much more resistant", he assures, seeing it "essentially a practical means of transport".
But today the Vespa, born as a popular means of transport and accessible to all, "is no longer a means of transport" for many people, "it is the symbol of a status, in my neighborhood all those who have succeeded have a Vespa ", regrets Marco.
“Nineteen million Vespas are all stories of young men and women from all over the world who conquered freedom in the saddle of their favorite two-wheeler. Vespa has accompanied their lives and represented the feelings and the desire for freedom ", for its part congratulated the manufacturer, Piaggio on its website.
The Vespa has been manufactured since its beginnings in 1946 at the Pontedera site in Tuscany (north-central Italy), but also in recent years in a factory in India and another in Vietnam.
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