AMHS CELEBRATES THE VESPA & ITS INVENTOR

Participating Raduno Vespisti and their rides outside Casa Italiana.

The society’s fourth program of the year was dedicated to the Vespa, that iconic symbol of Italy, which is only fitting as the inventor of the Vespa was Abruzzese. Our program took place on September 22, 2019, at Casa Italiana as part of a three-day Vespa Raduno organized by our speaker, Willy Meaux. Willy’s hard work paid off in a very successful Raduno which drew Vespisti from up and down the East Coast, as well as the Washington, D.C., area. We were pleased to have had as our special guest, Panfilo D’Angelo, president of the Vespa Club of Sulmona. Panfilo’s visit came about after AMHS President Ray LaVerghetta sent him an invitation through Willy, who visited Panfilo in Sulmona during a trip to Italy over the summer. Panfilo said he accepted the invitation with pleasure, and he was accompanied to the lunch by his sister and brother-in-law who live in the D.C. area. The Raduno was a wonderful event for everyone who loves the Vespa. This year AMHS was a sponsor of the Raduno,

“The Vespa Rally of the Nation’s Capital.” It started with a delicious barbecue on Friday evening, September 20, at La Moto dealership in Arlington, Va. AMHS Past President Maria D’Andrea-Yothers and board member Albert Paolantonio were among those who helped out The weekend also included a crespelle breakfast at Casa Italiana on Saturday, September 21. Then, a trip to the Kennedy Center, where 27 Vespas rallied in front of the Hall of Nations. That evening there was a concert featuring Tony Richards, a virtuoso guitarist and recording artist from Chicago whose mother is Abruzzese. After the concert, Vespisti enjoyed a ride around the city to view the monuments lit up at nighttime. When they got to the Capitol, some helpful Capitol Police officers shone spotlights on the building so the riders could get a good look. The Saturday morning breakfast was attended by many Vespisti who got up early after enjoying the barbecue the night before. The breakfast was sponsored by the American Petroleum Institute and it was catered by Simonetta Baldassari who was tasked with re-creating an Italian pasticceria.

The tables looked very elegant and the pastries tasted as good as they looked. Speaking to the riders and guests at the breakfast, Domenico Bellantone, First Counselor of the Embassy of Italy, concluded his remarks by saying, “a car moves the body, but a Vespa moves the soul.” The final event of the Raduno weekend was our Sunday luncheon program which highlighted the fact, not as well known as it should be, that Corradino D’Ascanio, who invented the Vespa in 1946, was from the small town of Popoli in the province of Pescara in Abruzzo. Willy, our speaker, is a true Vespa aficionado who has many friends and contacts among the Vespisti in the Washington, D.C. area and elsewhere. He is well known to many of us in our society, as he was an original founding member and assisted Lucio D’Andrea, our founder, with the drafting of the original bylaws. Willy’s family heritage is Abruzzese, with origins in Bugnara, which is very close to Sulmona. He said he got involved with Vespas and Apes (a three-wheeled light commercial vehicle) thanks to his Uncle Biaggio who was the second person in Bugnara to own one of the very first Vespas ever produced. And Willy said he has fond memories of his Uncle Biaggio in an Ape with a load of garlic in the bed.

Willy has been a member of the Holy Rosary community for 39 years. Currently he is a member of the Board of Directors of the Casa Italiana Sociocultural Center. He has been working on the interviews for the Marconi Project along with AMHS member Tom Sweeney to record for posterity the memories of some of the members of our community who emigrated to the Washington area years ago. Among the interviewees so far are several members of our society. Willy is a Director of the Arts at Mason Board of the College of Visual and Performing Arts and an affiliate faculty member at George Mason University. He is also the founder and President of the newly established Vespa Committee of Washington DC Inc., a 501(c)(3) foundation charity dedicated to the nexus of Italian and Vespa culture. He said he sees the Vespa as building a bridge across the generations, and as a way of involving people in other aspects of Italian culture. Willy showed us a short documentary on the amazing life of Corradino D’Ascanio and the invention of the Vespa. He made the film in coordination with Piaggio, the maker of the Vespa, while he was in Italy over the summer. In remarks the previous day at the breakfast at Casa Italiana, Ray gave a very interesting presentation on the life and times of Corradino D’Ascanio (see related article on page 3).

The iconic Vespa (“wasp” in Italian) was so named for its shape and its aerodynamic and nimble structure, and it was D’Ascanio’s most popular creation. Like all Italian inventions, it was conceived with aesthetics in mind. The beautiful 70th anniversary model was on display during the weekend, and it had all the bells and whistles. Plus it could go up to 80 miles per hour. Whipping through the streets on this simple, elegant yet robust piece of automotive engineering gave riders a sense of freedom and appealed to the style-conscious Italian public. Attendees at our meeting also enjoyed looking at photos taken at “Bici e Baci,” the Vespa museum in Rome.

The photos were taken in Rome this spring by Casa Italiana community member Teresa Forcina and they included some memorable photos of Charlton Heston in his Ben Hur costume riding a Vespa and of Audrey Hepburn riding sideways on Gregory Peck’s Vespa in the film “Roman Holiday.” Willy added that plans are in the works for a trip to Italy to go to the Raduno in Sulmona. The 82 attendees at the program also enjoyed a delicious lunch catered by Fontina Grille, with special desserts prepared by AMHS 2nd Vice President Lynn Sorbara. We thank all those who helped with the set-up and serving of the lunch. We also thank those who donated items for the raffle and those who brought tickets. We made $255 from the raffle, which this time included a gift certificate worth $300 from Apex for Vespa riding lessons. This lucky prize winner was Edvige D’Andrea, who looked right at home posing on the special display Vespa.