Until recently, scooters were not that popular in the USA. But somehow your grandma could always associate Vespas with Italy. Have you ever wondered how?

It is all because of the 1953, William Wyler movie, Roman Holiday. The award winning movie starring Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck, was a big hit throughout the world in the 50s. In fact, the actors riding through the streets of Rome on a Vespa caused not only the gluing of the words Vespa and Italy together in millions of minds, but it also resulted in more than 100,000 Vespa sales.

If you haven’t seen the movie, watch the trailer here.

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Have you seen Vespa Daniela? This amazing handcrafted wooden Vespa was built by Carlos Alberto, a carpenter from Portugal. The whole process of building the Vespa Daniela is available on Carpintaria Carlos Alberto’s website.

The post Portuguese Carpenter’s Wooden Vespa first appeared on scootcats.

In the old days, there was a time when young knights had to prove themselves through scooter jousting! May the best win…

The post Vespa Knights- Scooter Jousting! first appeared on scootcats.

Meet Haruko Haruhara; this pink haired girl from outer space, is one of the main characters of the anime FLCL, named Fooly Cooly in English. Haruko Haruhara is not your ordinary anime character, she is a Vespa rider! She is also called the Wasp Girl after the translation of the word Vespa from Italian. That being said, if you are an anime fan, check out this link for information on how to watch the show.

Haruko Haruhara on her Vespa

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Congratulations to Vespa Italy’s website for winning the People’s Voice Webby Award for 2011 within the Automotive category. The Webby Awards have been the leading international awards for honoring excellence on the Internet since 1996.

Two Webby Awards are available for each category, The Webby Award and The People’s Voice Award. Members of The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences select the nominees for both awards in each category, as well as the winners of the Webby Awards. However, people vote online to determine the winner of The People’s Voice Award.

The winners of the 15th International Webby Awards were announced through a Press Release on May 3, 2011. The 15th Annual Webby Awards ceremony will take place on June 13, 2011, at The Hammerstein Ballroom in New York. The event is planned to be broadcasted live through Facebook to millions of viewers Worldwide. For more details on the Webby Awards live broadcast on Facebook, visit their Facebook page.

To see a a complete list of 2011 Webby Awards winners, visit the Webby Awards website.

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Vespa World Days 2011 is going to be held in Norway this year. Thousands of scooterists from all around the world will travel to Norway for the annual gathering. The event will start on Thursday, May 19 and will continue through Sunday, May 22. Registrations will remain open until Sunday, May 15, so you have still 2 days left to join the Vespa World Days.

Vespa Club Gjøvik, in partnership with Vespa Club Norge and Vespa World Club will be hosting Vespa World Days 2011. Group rides, acrobatic shows, live music, dinners, tours are some of the activities planned for the event.

Also, the Vespa Trophy 2011 winners will be announced during the gala dinner on May 21. Registered Vespa clubs in the trophy visit Piaggio Dealers on the way to Gjøvik and collect stamps to win.

For more information about the Vespa World Days and registration, visit http://www.vespaworlddays2011.no.

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The recent cooperation of Vespa USA with the award-winning Mint.com blog, Mint Life, is targeting to encourage consumers to rethink their transportation choices. Mint.com, is a free website that helps Americans manage their money. The site brings a user’s all financial accounts together, automatically categorizes the transactions and lets users set budgets and achieve goals. Mint Life, on the other hand, is the award-winning blog of the website, with more than 1 million daily visitors, it has tons of articles about personal finance advice, money management tips and financial planning advice.

With the recent partnership, Mint Life has added motor scooter ownership to its portfolio of cash-conservation tips, to encourage consumers to rethink their transportation and commuting choices. An infographic of how motor scooters can change the urban transportation landscape, along with examples of how major U.S. cities from New York to San Francisco have joined the cause with special incentives for riders, is available at Vespanomics 2020.

With fuel prices on the fast track to $4.00 per gallon, finite U.S. oil reserves and a national mandate, the need for reducing gas and oil consumption and ultimately foreign oil dependence is more important than ever. Vespanomics 2020 data points out, that from 1990 through 2000, there has been an average annual increase of 2,325,000 licensed drivers in the United States.  Looking forward to the year 2020, it is estimated that there will be nearly 237 million licensed drivers in the U.S., each averaging 14,274 miles annually. If just 10 percent of these licensed drivers shifted 33 percent of their miles to motor scooters, gasoline consumption would be reduced by 3.9 billion gallons per year.  That’s a reduction of 198 million barrels of oil from American ports, saving the U.S. $21.4 billion per year.  Motor scooters don’t just sip fuel; the new generation also runs super clean.  This occasional switch to two wheels would also reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 77.3 billion pounds annually.

For more information on Vespanomics 2020, visit www.vespanomics.com.

Source: PR Newswire

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Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be a Mod in the 60s? All your pals riding around on their customized scooters, in their hyper cool clothes, meeting at coffee bars throughout the day, trying to avoid fights with Rockers, gathering to some dancing at all night clubs…

Mod, short for modernist, is a subculture that originated from England in the late 50s, which peaked through the 60s. Fashion, music and Italian scooters were significant elements of the subculture.

After the post World War economic recovery, people started getting more into leisure, while experiencing more freedom to spent money for themselves and towards their own interests, which lead to exploring new styles, such as Mod, Beatnik, Teddy Boy and Rockabilly.

The English town of Reading, located 40 miles west of London will be hosting an exhibition of the towns 60’s Mods, who got strongly influenced by the culture in London. Reading Museum will be hosting the exhibition. According to the Museum, the exhibition intends to be an insight into the real Mod world, going beyond the popular myths.

The exhibition, Life Through The Eyes of a 60s Mod, Reading Steady Go, is based on Gabriele Scicluna’s photos and memorabilia. The man who is in his 60s now, was a Mod himself back then in the 60s. He is also the guy seen riding a Vespa scooter in the expo logo.

Mr. Scicluna was a scooter lover, he sold his Vespa seen in the picture when he was 16 and then bought a Vespa GS, and later a Vespa SS.

The exhibition starts on Saturday, April 9 and will continue through October 2011. If you are in England, don’t miss it! For more info, visit http://www.readingmuseum.org.uk.

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Celebrities Naomi Watts and Liev Schreiber were spotted riding on their white Vespa in New York yesterday.  It is not the first time, the couple is seen riding a scooter. Perhaps, it is one way to avoid being stuck in a car in the crazy city traffic.

To see some pictures from their ride yesterday, click here.

To see pictures showing the couple riding on their white Vespa in 2009, click here.

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Last week, March 11-13, the beautiful city of Salzburg in Austria, which is also known to be the birth place of the 18th century composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart hosted its 6th annual international car show (Auto Messe Salzburg).

It was not all about cars this time, there was a special exhibition for customized Vespas and Lambrettas.

We found some very nice pictures of the customized scooters at the German online parts dealer SIP Scootershop‘s flickr site.  To see the pictures for yourself, visit this link:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sipscootershop/sets/72157626137767859/

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