Sawt Falasteen - Thousands ride through Rome as Vespa celebrates 80 years

A few donned biker jackets despite the scorching heat while others opted for t-shirts, the hum of their machines filling the capital with a colourful buzz.

Some rode solo, others in pairs, whizzing through the city centre -- even along streets usually closed to private traffic.

"We brought our Vespa over from the United States. We travelled through Germany, then via Vienna ... and I then rode my Vespa from Austria to Rome, a journey that took two weeks," Texas resident David Baamonde told AFP-TV on Saturday.

"For me, the Vespa is a way of life, a sense of carefree living, enjoying the moment, discovering scenery -- it's a lifestyle," said Italian Andrea Musco.

Featuring in cinema classics like "Roman Holiday" and "La Dolce Vita", the Vespa has a long association with the Eternal City.

"The history of the Vespa, which accompanies the birth and rise of Italy after the Second World War, is in a way an iconic symbol of our history, of our culture," said Roberto Gualtieri, the Italian capital's mayor.

- 'Vespa is special' -

The Vespa, which means "wasp" in Italian -- a reference to the sound of its engine -- was born on 23 April 1946, when the first patent for its manufacture was filed in Italy by Piaggio. It is still produced at the Pontedera site in Tuscany.

It was "the symbol of an Italy emerging from the war and getting back on its feet," Gualtieri said, adding that he was "proud" that Piaggio had decided to organise the anniversary in the city.

"Telling the story of 80 years of the Vespa is, in part, telling the story of how Rome has managed to capture the world’s imagination", particularly through cinema, he said.

The celebrations began on Thursday with the inauguration of a "Vespa Village" at the Foro Italico, a sports complex in the north of the capital, and culminated on Saturday with the grand parade through the streets of Rome.

Thousands of "Vespisti" from all over the globe turned up in the scooters, which are instantly recognisable because of their rounded lines, their brightly coloured metal bodywork and their round headlight mounted on the handlebars.

Andrew Ward, 57, and his sister Julie Stover, 63, came from the United States and rented a Vespa in Rome to take part in the parade.

"We had scooters and motorcycles our whole lives. But I always wanted a Vespa and eventually we got Vespas. Now I have two!" Ward, a regular at "Vespisti" gatherings in his country, told AFP.

"It’s a high-quality scooter. And it comes with a certain status. It’s classy, you know. It's not like the cheapy scooters that you see on the road all the time. Vespa is special," Stover added.

- Social significance -

Designed to be a popular and affordable means of transport, the Vespa -- which benefited from all sorts of innovations derived from aviation, Piaggio's core business -- also has social significance.

Its history is intertwined with "the history of a country emerging from the post-war period, that wants to move, that wants to get back up," Matteo Colaninno, executive chairman of the Piaggio group, said at the presentation of the celebrations.

"And this desire to move is not just physical mobility," it is also "a kind of drive toward economic mobility and above all social mobility," he said.

"Today, the Vespa has become a global phenomenon; we are on the verge of 20 million vehicles produced" since 1946, Colaninno said.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, photographed on Thursday sitting on a white Vespa in the reception rooms of Palazzo Chigi, the main government building, praised the famous scooter as representing not only "industrial excellence" but also "one of the most cherished Italian icons in the world, a symbol of Italian creativity and style".

"It's a legend," said Franco Gaudino, 52, speaking to AFP as he took part in the Roman event with his club from La Louviere, in Belgium.

Illac Diaz, originally from the Philippines, said that "the nice thing about the Vespa is you bring friendship".

"There's no place where you park without people becoming friends. So Vespa is like a family," said the 52-year-old, who has just bought a house in Trieste, in northern Italy, where he plans to acquire another Vespa as soon as possible.

I.Yassin--SF-PST