Thousands of Vespas swarm Rome’s historic center to mark iconic scooter’s 80th anniversary

ROME (AP) — More than 10,000 Vespas putt-putt-putted around the Colosseum and past the Roman Forum on Saturday, marking the 80th anniversary of the iconic scooter.

Enthusiasts came from all over; the AP spoke to people from across continental Europe, northern England, San Francisco, Australia’s Gold Coast, the Philippines and more. Vespa-borne visitors converged on the Eternal City’s cobblestone streets to celebrate a brand they likewise view as timeless. If for only a day, Ferrari and Ducati were forgotten as the little Vespa left them in its dust.

“The passion for Vespa is for the Italian style, freedom, the ’60s,” said Natalie Dunand, a retiree from France who was celebrating her own 61st birthday, too. “I love it.”

Made world-famous by the film “Roman Holiday” in 1953, when Gregory Peck gave Audrey Hepburn a romantic lift through Rome’s center, Vespas have since featured in others, including “The Talented Mr. Ripley” and more recently the animated “Luca.”

With curved lines evoking a bygone era, plus an ability to produce smiles among onlookers, Vespa — which means “wasp” in Italian — is to two-wheeled transport what the Volkswagen Beetle is to cars.

Its invention was a bit of chance as Italy rebuilt from the rubble after World War II. Piaggio, a major aircraft manufacturer that saw its Pontedera factory destroyed by bombings, had to change gears. Downshifting considerably, Piaggio started churning out scooters.

Women were among initial target clients, according to Davide Zanolini, Piaggio’s executive vice president of marketing, since they could ride them while wearing long skirts and without showing their legs. That's reflected in the Vespa's design.

“The shape, the elegance. This very charming attitude of Vespa is much more of a lady than a man,” Zanolini told The Associated Press in an interview.

That little two-wheeler helped kickstart Italy’s economy, and soon enough they were everywhere.

An AP article from 1950 said that Vespas had become so prevalent that their “staccato exhaust racket” had downtown Rome sounding like the Indy 500.

“There probably isn’t a noisier scooter in all the world,” it said. “Scooters darting loudly around Rome are said to impress motor-minded Americans as strongly as St. Peter’s or the Colosseum. The scooter quickly teaches visitors to look four ways at once at street crossings.”

Such scenes have again become commonplace since Vespa aficionados started arriving on Thursday, flooding streets all over the city and with traveling groups making their presence known in matching T-shirts.

The parking lot outside Rome’s Stadium of the Marbles on Thursday had rows upon rows of Vespas of all makes from the past eight decades. It was like a motorcycle rally — except adorable. Some Vespas featured flowers and stuffed animals.

Dunand’s Westie terrier rode behind her, its fur cut short to cope with the heat. A man from Tokyo, with his 8-year-old daughter behind him, swapped his hometown club's banner with an Italian. Others traded stickers. And the Vespa logo tattooed on a German man’s meaty left calf appeared next to three words in flowery cursive: “La Dolce Vita” — The Sweet Life.

Aficionados spoke about how the brand taps into nostalgia for a certain time, even among those who weren’t alive then. Many also noted that they traded bigger motorcycles for nimbler and more manageable Vespas because they’re lighter and automatic, with the accelerator on the hand grip.

“You get on, twist, go. Doddle. Easy,” said Andrew Walton, a 59-year-old truck driver who bought his first Vespa almost 20 years ago and never looked back. He had just spent eight days riding from Newcastle, first with a ferry to Rotterdam then following the Rhine River through Germany to Austria’s "Romantic Road", and finally down along Italy’s coast.

Once Rome’s mayor cut the ribbon at the Stadium of the Marbles, visitors streamed in singing, chanting, waving flags. Many made a beeline for the gift shop, where they could snap up anything from Vespa jackets and hats to Vespa blankets, Vespa water bottles and Vespa umbrellas. But most early comers had their eyes on the limited-edition helmet, with “80 Years of an Icon” emblazoned on its side.

A photo retrospective showed Vespas in classic scenes — couples picnicking in a flowering field, seaside escapes with bikinis and a beachball, road trips under the Mediterranean sun — plus others one might not imagine, like explorer Soren Nielsen reaching the Arctic Circle on a Vespa in 1963.

There were also pristine Vespas from Piaggio's collection displayed like posing models to admire, and soaking up attention usually directed toward the nearby marbles with idealized physiques.

The company has sold about 20 million Vespas worldwide since 1946, and today sells in 110 countries, Zanolini said. In the U.S., they're popular in Florida and California and gaining traction in some other places like Austin. But it’s still a niche product in America, he said.

Burke Sandman, whose family owns a 108-year-old car dealership in Indiana, told the AP in Rome that he bought his first Vespa about two decades ago — captivated by its sidecar. He quickly realized there were no resellers around and got in touch with Vespa to get in the game. He has since moved about 1,000 of them across the U.S., snagging 15 for himself.

“No one ever says anything bad about a Vespa. You know, it’s crazy,” Sandman said inside the Vespa Village. “Everyone that trades other brands for a Vespa, they never go back. It’s just something about it. And everyone likes Italian stuff. I get a lot of people that come back from Europe, and they’ve got the bug.”

AP corporate archivist Sarit Hand contributed

Natalie Dunand, a Vespa enthusiast from France, carries her dog Roxane as she arrives at the Vespa Village during celebrations for the 80th anniversary of the Vespa scooter in Rome, Thursday, June 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Vespa enthusiasts parade during celebrations for the 80th anniversary of the Vespa scooter, in Rome, Saturday, June 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Vespa enthusiasts parade during celebrations for the 80th anniversary of the Vespa scooter, in Rome, Saturday, June 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

FILE - U.S. high jumper John Thomas, of Cambridge, Mass., waves from a Vespa scooter with an unidentified official Olympic driver inside the Olympic Village, in Rome, Aug. 27, 1960. (AP Photo/Mike Stern, File)

Vespa enthusiasts parade in front of the Colosseum during celebrations for the 80th anniversary of the Vespa scooter, in Rome, Saturday, June 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Vespa enthusiasts parade in front of the Colosseum during celebrations for the 80th anniversary of the Vespa scooter, in Rome, Saturday, June 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

LONDON (AP) — Britain looks set to get a change of tone at the top, replacing stolid, unpopular Prime Minister Keir Starmer with popular, affable Andy Burnham.

But the charismatic Burnham may have difficulty — at least initially — distancing himself from policies set in motion by his predecessor.

Burnham, the former mayor of Greater Manchester who was sworn into Parliament hours after Starmer announced his resignation on Monday, will be constrained by the platform the center-left Labour Party was elected on that decisively ended 14 years of Conservative rule in 2024.

It's not entirely clear how he'll navigate those limits and bring his unique brand of politics to the revolving-door post that would make him the 7th prime minister in a decade. He’ll lay out his economic vision in a speech next week.

“At the moment, Andy Burnham is being almost hailed and held up as a folk hero that will save British politics,” said Matthew Flinders, politics professor at University of Sheffield. “The tide is changing and the big issue for Andy Burnham is that when the world suddenly moves against him and he becomes a folk devil, will he sustain the pressure?”

Burnham is currently the only contestant for the job of leading the Labour Party and the country, and will likely take over July 17 if no one else enters the race. His return to the House of Commons follows a decade leading the region around the U.K.’s third-largest city, birthplace of the Industrial Revolution, which has enjoyed an economic revival during his tenure.

His main challenge will be to overcome Starmer's inability to deliver promised economic growth, repair tattered public services and ease the cost of living.

Burnham highlighted those issues — along with housing and creating opportunities for young people — in a post on social media after Starmer said he was quitting.

“The country expects stability, seriousness and a continued focus on the issues that matter most and that is what it will get,” he said on X.

Burnham, who is widely regarded as sitting to the left of Starmer in the party, has said he'll revive a sluggish economy without going beyond the current government’s spending and borrowing plans. That pledge has helped reassure markets traumatized in 2022 after Prime Minister Liz Truss announced unfunded tax cuts and then withdrew them, leading to her 49-day record as Britain's shortest-serving leader.

“If you are a Labour prime minister from the soft left of the party, the markets don’t need that much invitation to panic,” said Mark Goodwin, a politics lecturer at Coventry University. “They will start from a position of skepticism. So he’d have to be very, very careful."

He said Burnham will face a challenge “to convince people that this is something different, without the markets reading that as ‘This is too different.’"

Burnham promotes what has been called “Manchesterism,” a business-friendly socialist approach that involves harnessing private investment for major projects and decentralizing government to give communities more control of housing, utilities, transportation and education.

In a possible preview of how he would move power from the capital, he is reportedly planning to move some of the prime minister’s operation closer to home, about 200 miles north of 10 Downing St., the London office and home of the U.K.’s leader.

He has said he would not raise taxes on workers — sticking to a Starmer pledge — and suggested policies that include easing the tax burden on businesses, and possibly reversing an increase in a tax employers pay to fund pensions, public health care and welfare.

The big question is how he will fund programs, if he'll scrap existing priorities, and how he'll meet demands for higher defense spending, said Jill Rutter, senior fellow at the Institute for Government think tank.

Starmer's government pledged to meet a NATO target of spending 3.5% of GDP on the military by 2035. But John Healey stepped down as defense secretary this month after complaining that Starmer was not moving fast enough to meet the target.

Burnham's lack of experience on the world stage could present a challenge improving the so-called special relationship with the U.S. after President Donald Trump turned on Starmer.

Trump described Burnham this week as a “town” mayor and said he heard he was “extremely liberal” and probably wouldn't expand North Sea oil drilling — one of his frequent gripes about Starmer.

Starmer made a priority of forging cordial ties with Trump despite their political differences, and was rewarded with a U.S.-U.K. trade deal. But it came at the cost of angering some in Labour's liberal voter base, and the president soured on Starmer after the British leader criticized his designs on Greenland and declined to enter the Iran war.

Burnham has not always said nice things about Trump. After Trump's followers stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Burnham posted on X that "any politician who gave Trump the time of day should be ashamed right now.”

Starmer won praise from many for his international role, especially in bolstering European support for Ukraine. But he was criticized by some for being distracted by foreign affairs, Rutter said. She doesn't expect the same from Burnham and he could farm out some of those duties by choosing an experienced hand as foreign secretary, the U.K.'s top diplomat.

"I don’t think Andy Burnham will want to be ‘never-here Andy’ in succession to ‘never-here Keir,’” Rutter said in reference to Starmer's globetrotting moniker.

Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said on Wednesday that she spoke with Burnham about policy issues and said “he’s 100% behind our unwavering support for Ukraine” and ”is a fundamental believer in NATO and in our shared deterrence and in the multilateral partnerships that we have."

An early priority for Burnham will be something Starmer struggled with: crafting a clear and convincing narrative that people understand about the direction he wants to take the country, Flinders said.

That plays to Burnham's communications skills and the popularity he has achieved by presenting himself as an amiable northern everyman who favors T-shirts over suits and ties, plays soccer for kicks and is known for spinning 1990s tunes during DJ battles.

So far, he has played it safe and tried not to raise public expectations too high. But if he can prove himself to be a competent leader and win public support to survive the remaining three years before a general election must be held, he can lay out a bolder vision for another term in his own manifesto.

Burnham has spoken of reshaping the political system, such as replacing the House of Lords with an elected senate and introducing proportional representation in voting. He also said he'd like to see the U.K. rejoin the European Union in his lifetime, though he backed away from that during his campaign in a constituency that voted 2-to-1 in favor of Brexit.

“My sense is that he will take some time, sensibly, to build up his team, his narrative, his story and his connections in order to then try to secure a public mandate and the next general election to then approach the more radical phase that he wants to deliver, which is exactly what Margaret Thatcher did in the '80s,” Flinders said.

Andy Burnham arrives at Portcullis House in Westminster, central London, Monday June 22, 2026. (Andrew Matthews/PA via AP)

Andy Burnham, front left, is sworn-in as an MP in the House of Common in London, England, Monday, June 22, 2026. (House of Commons via AP)

FILE - Labour candidate Andy Burnham gestures, surrounded by supporters at the Stubshaw Cross Community and Sports Club as voting is underway in the Makerfield by-election, in Ashton-in-Makerfield, England, Thursday, June 18, 2026. (Peter Byrne/PA via AP, file)

Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaks to the media outside 10 Downing Street to announce his resignation in London, Monday, June 22, 2026.(AP Photo/Thomas Krych)

Andy Burnham with colleagues from the Parliamentary Labour Party in Westminster Hall at the Houses of Parliament in central London, as he returns to the House of Commons to take up his seat after winning the Makerfield by-election, Monday June 22, 2026. (Yui Mok/PA via AP)