You can park anywhere with one of those!
Rome has a lot of Vespas, but you probably already knew that. You also probably knew Rome had tiny vehicles in general. But there’s something about a Vespa that really excites me. They just look so cool. Zipping along windy streets, weaving in between traffic, while a deep voiced Italian delivers a philosophical voiceover and everything is shot in black and white.
I’ve never ridden a Vespa. The closest thing I’ve gotten to ride is a motorized scooter. Now, mind you, Vespas are technically scooters. For the SAT crowd, “Vespa” is to “Scooter” what “Kleenex” is to “Tissue.” But the scooter I rode wasn’t gas powered and able to fit both a slender Roman beauty and myself. No, this was a tiny electric scooter with a maximum speed of 14 miles per hour. And it had a basket. Not the sexiest thing to drive, especially when you notice an obese, middle aged woman riding on a better version across the street.
I took that baby up to 14, a very light breeze barely moving my hair. I could hear the electric motor squeal out a high pitched noise, mechanically begging me to slow down. After a block, I took mercy on the machine, made an extremely wide turn–the only turn size possible on this thing–and sputtered back to the starting line.
I can only hope Vespas are cooler to ride than that.