Are you ready for your new life astride a Vespa?

Ferraris, Maseratis, Lamborghinis – they’re all impressive machines. But there’s no more authentic way of living La Dolce Vita than astride a Vespa…

Ever since Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck roared through the streets of Rome on a Vespa in the 1953 film A Heart and a Crown, the dinky scooter has belonged in Italian iconography. The so-called ‘wasp’ was ridden by factory workers and film stars alike, the international Jet Set using Vespas to zoom from the villa to the port in the summer resort of Portofino. Early models are now seriously sought-after, with prices on the rise. At Dorotheum’s ‘Solo Vespa. Quasi’ auction poised to take place in Vienna on 24 May, a whole series of classic Vespa and Lambretta scooters will cross the block, the oldest of which were built in the 1940s. There’s even a Vespa car offered in the 35-lot catalogue. These are our favourites…