Rare objects (Tim)

It is amazing just how few old Vespas you see on the road here - and I include our PX's in this definition of 'old'. Apparently a decade or so ago the Italian government, in an attempt to meet their carbon emission reduction commitment, decided to offer hard-to-refuse incentives for people to trade in thier old smokey scooters for new less smokey twist'n'go's; and as a consequence many older machines vanished from the roads of Italy.
So it is a rare and exciting moment to see an old vespa on the road and the riders always give a wave and a toot.

While buzzing through one town (and I forget which one now) I was amazed to see a little gathering of old scooters outside a cafe. An exchange of waves confined they were friendly and I shot off to catch Scott who had sailed by unawares. At the next lights I shouted (its blimin difficult to communicate with helmets on and over grumbling engines) to Scott "follow me, it's time for a coffee break". We U-turned and went back to the scooter cafe.
It turns out it was the club meeting of the ORSI delle ALPI scooter club - and they made us very welcome.
Dressed in our full motorcycle gear and full faced helmets they must of thought we were a pair of pussys (it was 28 deg C) but they did seem to be impressed with the fact we were in effect riding our scooters 500 miles for a work event - they all agreed we had the coolest jobs!
We a coffee, shared some stories and some badges and then hit the road again. We were invited to a Northern Soul all- nighter with the rest of the dozen or so scooterists, but we declined prefering to press on.
Thanks for welcoming us chaps - next time we shall come just for the all-nighter :-)