Vespa, the iconic scooter manfuacturer that unusually has a track record in Baja and Dakar, will celebrate its 80th birthday with the Vespa Roma 2026 on June 25 to 28.

The festival will be held at the Foro Italico, where the Stadio dei Marmi is to be converted into the “Vespa Village”. Live music and events will take place on the stadium’s main stage courtesy of artists like Radio Deejay, DJ Molella, and Wad.

The village opens at 1 PM on June 25, which is followed by a celebratory coin being presented by the Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance; the coin is minted by the Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato. Poste Italiane will host a philatelic postmark ceremony, while Giacomo Bretzel’s 80 Years of Vespa photo exhibition opens.

On Day 2, the European Vespa Rally Championship regularity series and Gimkana World Championship will host special events on stage.

A parade is planned for the 27th followed by a treasure hunt and Vespa World Cup awards ceremony.

Finally, the weekend ends with the Concorso di Eleganza contest. The village closes at 3 PM.

“In Rome, we are celebrating 80 years not just of a brand, but of a lifestyle that has uniquely inspired generations worldwide,” said Piaggio Group’s marketing exewcutive Davide Zanolini. “It will be a massive celebration, bringing together passionate fans from every continent to share their love for Vespa and the innate sense of freedom that only she can create. All of this will unfold with the unmistakable style and elegance that Vespa has always carried along the streets of the world.”

Founded in 1946 by Piaggio, Vespa is synonymous with the image of European chic and classy scooters. Of course, that doesn’t mean they can’t be mean machines too. The Vespa 150 TAP was notably used by French paratroopers for anti-tank warfare in the late 1950s.

In 1973, two Vespa Rally 180 scooters took part in the Baja 500. Neither finished due to the expansion chambers, which replaced the stock mufflers, breaking off.

“Probably the least powerful entrant is Henrich Fr. Rupp, 43, Aurora, Colo., aboard a Piaggio 180 Vespa motor scooter—about 10 horse power,” quipped the Associated Press.

“‘Yea,’ he said when asked if he’d done this sort of thing before, ‘I made the Cairo to Casablanca run.’”

Seven years later, a quartet of Vespa P200E scooters took part in the Paris–Dakar Rally with Bernard Neimer, Marc Simonot, and Bernard and Yvan Tcherniavsky. All four riders starred in enduro, with Yvan being the reigning French enduro national champion while Neimer won the year prior and had raced the inaugural Dakar in 1979 on a bike.

The effort was put together by Jean-François Piot, who also enlisted five Land Rovers as rapid assistance vehicles. François Brébant, Jean-Pierre Hanrioud, Henri Pescarolo, René Trautmann, and Piot each drove them, one assigned to each Vespa and the last carrying extra spare parts.

The strategy was simple enough: the scooters obviously won’t beat the bikes, so they just had to reach the finish and within the time limit. The actual execution, of course, wasn’t as easy.

Neimer’s scooter broke in half several times (prompting the team to weld a metal bar to keep it together) until it gave way for good. Yvan also retired, while Bernard was able to survive and finish 30th. Simonot successfully made it home in 28th as well without too many issues.

Andrea Revel Nutini and Marcello Dibrogni would also race Vespa VX 150s in the 2011 Rallye des Pharaons and 2013 Transanatolia Rally. Both scooters then appeared at the Museo Piaggio before being sold.

Featured image credit: DPPI