In 2022, scooters can be found anywhere that riders are looking for practical, relatively inexpensive everyday transportation. It all had to start somewhere, though—and the birthplace of scooters, as every fan knows deep in their bones, is Italy. Without the rise of Vespa and Lambretta, scooters as a form of two-wheeled transportation simply wouldn’t exist in the same way they do today.
That’s why the Vespa Club Milano and Lambretta Club Milano came together to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the birth of Italian scooter culture. On April 29, 2022, the two clubs will host a special cultural event called “Scooter, il Mito,” (Scooter, the Myth) celebrating the rise and influence of Italian scooters and culture at the European Institute of Design (IED) in Milan.
Pandemic safety mitigations are still in effect, with registration limited to just 250 attendees who all had to register online no later than April 20. If you want to attend, but you didn’t register in time, the Automotoclub Storico Italiano will be livestreaming it on its website and social channels, according to Motociclismo. While it’s probably a safe bet to assume that Italian will be the primary spoken language, if you understand and/or speak the language but aren’t anywhere near Milan, then it’s a great opportunity for you to enjoy the event from afar. We’ll include a link to the ASI homepage in our Sources so you can check it out.
Those who were able to register will be required to show their COVID green pass, as well as wear FFP2 masks while attending. (For those unfamiliar, the E.U.’s FFP2-grade is similar to the N95 or KN95 masks advised in America for prevention of viral spread.)
The special cultural and historic event will feature Lambretta Club Milan honorary president Vittorio Tessera, who is also a curator of the Scooter Museum and Innocenti Historical Archive. Alongside him will be Marco Caloi, who is the vice-president of Vespa Club Milan and also the vice-conservator of the Vespa Historical Register. The two will be interviewed live onstage, and the talk is sure to be interesting and engaging for anyone interested in Italian scooter history.
Since the ASI will be livestreaming it, and since both Vespa and Lambretta have fans around the world who may not speak Italian, here’s hoping that a video with properly translated subtitles gets posted online after the fact. It seems like an extremely special event, so the more people who can enjoy it, the better.
