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Vespa |  | Author: Davide Mazzanti
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Category: Book
List Price: $35.00
Buy New: $22.95
as of 11/21/2009 11:24 EST details
You Save: $12.05 (34%)
New (8) Used (23) from $9.74
Seller: a1books
Rating:  9 reviews
Sales Rank: 802583
Media: Paperback
Pages: 336
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.9
Dimensions (in): 10.4 x 8.7 x 1.1
ISBN: 0811842487
Dewey Decimal Number: 629.22750945
UPC: 765145105262
EAN: 9780811842488
ASIN: 0811842487
Publication Date: April 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
From Roman Holiday to Quadrophenia, the Vespa scooter has long been a symbol of youthful independence as well as one of the most recognizable pop culture icons of the 20th century. Immortalized as a design classic, the ever-growing ranks of Vespa dealers and scooter clubs worldwide attest to its enduring popularity at the street level. For the first time, the complete history of this chic mode of transport is celebrated in Vespa: Style in Motion. Fully authorized by and drawn from the archives of its manufacturer, Piaggio, this mighty volume tells the Vespa's story from its birth, right after World War II, to the brand new Granturismo model. Vespa is filled with hundreds of film stills, advertisements, and period photographs, offering a visual homage for any fan of Italian flair. Specifications and diagrams of all 41 scooter models, plus in-depth profiles of 15 classic Vespas, provide a detailed reference for true aficionados. Always in vogue, the Vespa remains the ride of choice for hipsters and internationalists everywhere. This, for them, is the last word.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 9
 Favorite Vespa Book October 18, 2009
G. Ballard (Albuquerque, NM)
This is the book that I bought after I rode a Vespa, and before I bought one of my own. It covers A-Z, and I came to know every word and photograph, cover to cover. More than that, you'll just have to get it for yourself.
Excellent reference and coffeetable book July 7, 2008
James Shen (Huntington Beach, CA USA)
I was interested in purchasing a vintage Vespa scooter, and this book is helpful in knowing the history of the company, its representative Vespa models from 1940's to recent 2005 models. It is not an exhaustive listing of every model the company ever produced. Nevertheless it gives a pretty good background of what one is looking at. Every page of this book has color and/or black/white photogrpahs, and some are shot in closeup views. If you're considering buying a vintage Vespa, I would recommend this reference book.
For any lover of two-wheeled transportation, not just Vespanians June 6, 2007
Bruce Brodnax (Lost Angeles, somewhere out in the smog)
This book is unbelievably well-written compared to the vast majority of "motor books" [whether automotive or motorcycle-specific.] While it does have some minor technical flaws - primarily, the association of captions with the picture they refer to - the quality of the illustration is absolutely top-notch, and the translation is generally excellent, altho' there are enough oddities to remind you that many sections of the book were clearly originally offered in another language [transcripts of radio shows & foreign-language ads being prime examples.]
The bottom line is that even if you never particularly cared for Vespas over any other brand of scooter, once you've read this book, you'll have a much greater appreciation for the marque and scooters in general. To put it another way: I borrowed this book from the library rather than buying it, but having read it & enjoyed it so thoroughly, I intend to add it to my personal library as soon as funds permit! Two thumbs up!
 Nice, but not essential August 14, 2006
João Martins (Portugal)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Nice book, excelent pictures and lots of info related to the history of the scooter, including all sorts of stories about the role of the scooter in its day, but... The book chooses a few models to portrait in detail and leaves out a couple of important ones, including the rally models and the fact that its an "official biography" tends to make it lack objectivity very often.
All in all it's like a big, beautiful ad for the Vespa and should be bought with that in mind!
2005[?] update February 27, 2006
Joseph A. Powell (North Carolina)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The copy I received in late January '06 seems to be an update on the original Chronicle Books edition of 2004. The newer edition has last chapters that refer to the 250 GTS model. There are a few typo's and printing errors that I did not notice in the earlier book.
Overall - this is one of the very few scooter books I have actually paid money to own. [I have interlibrary borrowed many others.] The Italian-to-English translation is puzzling here and there, but the spirit of the work gave me a deeper understanding of the sociological impact of the machine on culture and Piaggio on Italy.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 9
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