Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni was at “Vespa Roma 2026 – 80 Years of an Icon,” the four-day festival held June 25-28, 2026, in Rome to celebrate Vespa’s 80th anniversary.
Here’s the press release from Piaggio…
After attending the ceremony in the Italian Chamber of Deputies to mark the first sitting of the Constituent Assembly, and before leaving for Antibes for the 36th Intergovernmental Summit between Italy and France, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni held a brief meeting at Palazzo Chigi with the Executive Chairman and the Chief Executive Officer of the Piaggio Group, Matteo and Michele Colaninno, on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the patent and the production start-up of the Vespa scooter.
Three historic models from 1949, 1964 and 1976 were on display in the Sala dei Galeoni, alongside a number of more recent models, in different colours arranged to form the Italian tricolor flag.
The Vespa is not just an example of industrial excellence, it is also one of the world’s best-loved Italian icons, a symbol of Italian creativity and style,” said Premier Meloni. “Celebrating its 80th anniversary means paying tribute to one of the most fascinating success stories of ‘Made in Italy’: Vespa is a brand that has helped shape the image of Italy around the world and continues, to this day, to fuel the soft power that our country exerts on a global scale.”
