Vespa Celebrates 76th Birthday In Pontedera With Museum Exhibition

#VespaSoundsCool celebrates Vespas in music and as pop culture icons.

Vespa Sounds Cool Museo Piaggio Exhibit 2022

Janaki Jitchotvisut

By: Janaki Jitchotvisut

Apr 21, 2022 at 1:08pm ET

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If you’re in Italy or planning to visit before October, 2022, then you may want to see the Piaggio Museum’s upcoming Vespa exhibit. It’s the iconic scooter’s 76th birthday—so to celebrate, the Museo Piaggio will launch the new #VespaSoundsCool exhibit at the end of April.

From April 24 through October 8, 2022, visitors will be able to appreciate the many and various ways that iconic Vespas have intersected with popular music through the decades. A number of pieces will be on display in order to tell this important story, guiding visitors through all the ways that Vespa has been intertwined in the fabric of pop culture.

To help build this exhibit, Museo Piaggio consulted with MTV Italia to select no less than 28 music videos throughout the history of pop music, which all feature Vespas. Artists include the Who, Jovanotti, Elisa, Depeche Mode, Gwen Stefani, Black Eyed Peas, Lunapop, and more. (It’s not clear if the new Justin Bieber x Vespa collaboration will also be on display, but it seems likely.) Rare records with Vespas on their artwork will be available for visitors to hear at special listening stations, and other musical artifacts from the Andy Warhol collection will be on display.

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For anyone who’s in Pontedera over the weekend of April 23 and 24, 2022, you’ll have the chance to participate in a Vespa celebration that’s much bigger than just a single museum exhibition. This weekend is Vespa Day, with outdoor celebrations planned for all kinds of Vespa enthusiasts from all over Europe. The new Vespa Elettrica (Red) will take pride of place—along with a beautiful piece of public art that echoes its timeless shape.

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Piazza Martiri della Liberta will host the special art installation “Vespa in Fiore,” which will be comprised of thousands of red flowers in the inimitable shape of a Vespa. Visitors to Vespa Days who contribute will be able to take flowers for themselves, with all proceeds going to benefit (RED) and its global disease-fighting efforts, most recently in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The afternoon of April 23 will see a concours d’elegance contest for participating Vespas, in among all the general celebrations and festive atmosphere of the weekend. On Sunday morning, April 24, 2022, a parade of Vespas is planned to start at the Museo Piaggio, riding to the Teatro del Silenzio in Lajatico. It’s around 30 kilometers (or 18.6-ish miles), depending on the route traveled—but the memories will surely last another 76 years, at the very least.

Sources: Museo Piaggio, MTV Italia, Tribuna Economica, Ticino Notizie

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