Modern Vespa

We arrived home last night from our tour of northern Italy. Rode some 2400 km in Italy and 500 km in Greece without incident. Did have to replace the exhaust on Ardy's Yesterday after crossing some railroad tracks, but that set us back a whole hour, as we were 100 meters from a great shop when it happened. Bought a new pipe and impressed people with my mechanical skills. It pays to travel with a tool kit.

The route was Paros-Athens (ferry), then Patra in the Peloponnese, ferry to Ancona Italy, up the coast to Venice, into the Dolomite Mountains, Chiavenna (near St Moritz), Lake Como, down to Cinque Terra, Lucca, Pisa, Pontedera (of course), Frienze, through Tuscany and then back home.



If you want magnificent riding, the Dolomiti is the place to go. It is truly PTW touring country. Tuscany is no slouch, either. In Venice, we stayed a a lovely hotel in Mestre, 10 mins by bus from Venice proper. The hotelier told us to park the scoots in the laundry room for added security!

Our Greek plates brought a lot of inquiries and complements. We were never short of folks to chat with when we stopped for fuel, coffee or a cold soda. In one village, a middle aged gent went on about how sad it is that Asian scoots had made such a penetration of the Italian market, but was pleased to see Piaggio/Vespa picking up steam again. Of course virtually everyone our age told us about the Vespas they have owned.

We stopped in a dealership in Patra on the way home to check the PX oil level. (Didn't bring any gear oil - it's easily found in gas stations.) They had a beautiful 84 PX200E on the floor, and I was ready to talk trade-in and purchase, but, alas, it was the typical "example of our fine work" restoration one finds in better Greek shops that will never be for sale.

Since Malaguti never sold the Yesterday in Italy, "Buttercup" received a lot of attention as folks tried to figure out what she is. First reaction was that it was a rare late 50's Vespa beautifully restored. Of course when folks got closer, they realized it was a "modern" scoot. The fellow we bought the exhaust from raved over the Yesterday. It was the first he had ever seen other than a parts list on his computer.

Saw lots of Modern Vespas and Piaggios. Larger displacement scoots (250 and up) are what appear to be selling.

The Museum at Piaggio was great.

Will upload pics to Flikr when we get our breath and post a link.

Great trip, but still good to be home.

Here's the link to some of our pictures

This one from the Piaggio Museum says a lot!

A&A

We could have met, I was in Cattolica.

The Passo di Maloia between St. Moritz and Chiavenna is a great road.
Once I had trouble following a Swiss girl. She rushed down the turnes while refreshing her makeup. In one turn she even overtook the yellow Swiss postbus 8).

Bye

It sounds lovely! I've taken the big scooter (500cc Gilera Nexus) into northern Italy but I'd looove to do it on the Vespa.

Nice recap. Enjoyed reading it. Looking forward to the images.

What a great way to tour Italy. Can't wait to see the pictures. Thanks for sharing!

Pictures linked in the original post

enjoy

A&A

wow, well done, what a ride!!
I'll check out the pics later...

I cannot believe I've been in Pontedera earlier this year looking for things to do and only found out that the Vespa museum was THEREEEEEEEEE!!!

gutted gutted gutted.... going again in 2 and half weeks, woohooo, but to Venice, Padova seeing relatives, not enough time to go to Tuscany again...

still on my mission to prepare the shopping itinerary though... did you do any shopping (bike related) in Venice? Any good shopping tips???

We did very little shopping. Have no needs for the scoots, and no place to put anything else we might have bought! Major benefit of touring by scoot.

A&A

best anti-shopping tip ever!
note to self: next time travel by scooter and allow no room for extra luggage!!! and post is not an option!

Great!!!
Thanks for posting the pictures. Got any more??

Still going through the memory cards. But we are near to our monthly limit on Flickr, so it might be a while. Am working on editing video we shot while riding, using a scoot mounted camcorder.

A&A

BTW

Peter Moore's adventures in VROOM with a View are not unusual. We found the same hospitality and love for Vespas on our journey as he describes in the book. Riding a Vespa with your duffel bag bungied on board draws conversation and complements. Many folks said it was the right way to tour the country. And many said that Vespa is Italy, and Italy is Vespa.

A&A

Che bella! I hope to do a similar Vespa tour of Italia one day. I'm usually there once a year, so one of these years I need to make it happen!

Nowhere better than home but nice to get away......agree

Thanks for sharing great pictures

We are working on possibilities for another "Italy Rally" in 2012 along the lines of last year's. Probably the first 2 weeks of Sept 1012. First choice would be in the Dolomites, second choice would be Tuscany. Keep an eye on www.scooteurope.com

Looks great, thanks for sharing!!

Great pics. Gonna save your map for someday...

Great trip. I am Glad you have enjoyed it _Getting jealous of those little adventures in my own country...

On my own I have been visiting Greece 6-7 times (Paros of course..) and many times I ended up on some rented car (Panda or Suzuki) or asian scooter only to wonder what would have been doing it on my GT200.

Got hooked on bicycle tripping recently: just got back from an amazing tour of the Outer Hebrides.

I'll check yuor pics
cheers

Thanks for the pics ...
The way to get around flickr limit is to register another email .. and another and another .. just to post pictures

Keep in mind that this is an OLD thread (the trip was in 2008). We've long since finished sorting through and uploading pics!

ooppssss .. blush blush blush ... i didnt notice the date .. my bad and apologies everyone

I thought you had gone on another trip until i noticed the date. I hope you have the pics sorted by now. Love it when the old threads resurface.