With a week to go before kick-off, everything is ready for the 2024 edition of the Vespa World Days.
The most spectacular Vespa rally in the world, held for the first time in Pontedera, Italy, the town where Vespa was founded and the site of its manufacture since 1946, promises to be one of the grandest in its 70-year history, which began with the first event back in 1954 in Paris.
Fans representing thousands of Vespa Clubs (with 660 in Italy alone) will flock from countries including Australia, Canada, Japan, the U.S., Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, the Philippines, China, Pakistan, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Kuwait, Morocco as well as all the European nations.
Indeed, the 8,000 places available for the parade on Saturday, April 20 — the most spectacular event of the rally, which is set to pass through some of the most beautiful places in Valdera — sold out in a flash. It promises to be an incredible sight , stretching for more than 10 kilometers, with the officially-registered Vespas joined by thousands more, many already on their way to Tuscany.
Furthermore, during the Vespa World Days, the Piaggio Museum in Pontedera will be celebrating 140 years of Piaggio, which was founded in 1884, with a major exhibition entitled “Vespa all over the World”; brimming with spectacular original material form the Piaggio Historical Archive, it tells the story of Vespa’s spread around the world, tracing the history of its early internationalization between the late 1940s and the 1960s. Through the reconstruction of an imaginary global assembly line, and thanks to the generosity of the collectors who have lent the exhibition a number of very rare original models, produced and outfitted all over the world, the objects on display narrate the story of the thousands of roads travelled by Vespa, which was being assembled and sold on all continents soon after its conception — decades ahead of the advent of globalization.
The museum auditorium will also be the venue for the Meet & Greet events for Vespa fans, who will be able to hear about the history and origins of the Vespa, directly from those responsible for designing and manufacturing this icon.
The ultra-modern Piaggio factory where the Vespa was born will be open to the public April 20-21, with no less than 128 special tours reserved for the Vespa enthusiasts who have registered for the rally, on board comfortable electric trains.
For all four days of the event, the Vespa Village in Piazza del Mercato in Pontedera will be at the heart of the action. Here, visitors will be able to find a food and beverage area as well as several exhibition stands, including the official Vespa stand with the entire range on display, in addition to merchandise available to purchase. Accordingly, the Vespisti and visitors will be able to come together in the spirit of the Vespa Clubs — and furthermore, on Saturday and Sunday, this is where the Vespa Rally (one of the event’s sporting fixtures) will depart from.
The Vespa Village is also home to a technical support area and an official replacement parts shop. There will also be test rides, along with the delivery of 250 limited edition certificates of origin for the event — not forgetting the Concorso di Eleganza on Saturday, another of the most eagerly-awaited events of the Vespa World Days.
Meanwhile, the Vespa Village will also host the prize-giving on Sunday, April 21 for the winners of the Vespa Trophy, the much-coveted tourist trophy that pits Vespa Club members against one another as they record all the stages of their journey to Pontedera with photos and special stamps in their Travel Book.
During the rally, the Vespa Boutique will be open in Piazza Martiri della Libertà in the city centre, selling new and exclusive clothing from the Vespa capsule collection.
More generally, the entire city of Pontedera and its most charming corners will present itself to visitors as a huge venue for the festivities and events dedicated to the Vespa, from photography and art exhibitions to the film festival, where three of the hundreds of films that have starred the Vespa will be screened on a loop: the Disney-Pixar production “Luca,” the legendary “Roman Holiday” and the TV drama “Enrico Piaggio, an Italian dream.”
