A Vespa gets you round Rome. A sidecar lets you look at it.
Whether the little 50cc really needs a licence. What a Chianti day on two wheels costs once lunch is in. Which Roman rides put a photographer on the back of the convoy. Reviews of the Vespa tours, sidecar runs and vintage Fiat 500 days you can book.
Four rides that explain why anyone books a Vespa at all.
A Tuscan hill road, a sidecar through Rome after dark, the fountains at your own throttle and a Hanoi supper run. What each costs, and what the riders say.
01The Chianti dayFlorence Vespa Tour: Tuscan Hills and Italian CuisineOut of Florence on your own scooter, hill roads to a winery and lunch at the top. The ride most people are already picturing.
02The night sidecarVespa Sidecar Tour By Night with PickupYou take the chair, somebody else takes Rome after dark. No licence, no nerves, all of the view.
03The Roman lapExplore the City by Vespa with an Optional PhotoshootYour own Vespa through the centro, with a photographer riding along if you want the pictures.
04The Hanoi supper runHanoi Vespa Tours: Food + Culture + Fun on Army VespaPillion on an old army Vespa through the Old Quarter, stopping wherever the food is.
Rome, Chianti or the Amalfi cliff road. Pick the ride, not the postcard.
Two thirds of the Vespa days worth booking anywhere are Italian. Three kinds of Italian ride, what each costs to board, and the town it leaves from.
★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · Florence Vespa Tour: Tuscan Hills and Italian Cuisine
Rome by scooterFountains, cobbles and the Colosseum lap, in traffic that forgives a Vespa.
Chianti hill roadsCypress lanes out of Florence, a cellar at the far end and lunch before the ride home.
The Amalfi roadSorrento to Positano on the cliff road, which is a far better ride than it is a drive.
All 422 Italian Vespa days →
Rome and Florence run on Vespas. Hanoi and Paris just do it differently.
Six cities where the scooter is the quickest honest way to see the place, and the best ride out of each.
The sidecar is for people who came to look, not to drive.
Somebody else takes the handlebars, you get the chair, the camera and the whole street at eye level. It is the most booked kind of Vespa day on the site and the only one that needs no licence at all.
The Vespa days more riders take than any other.
See every ride →The rides that fill first, from the Chianti classic to a sidecar lap of Rome at midnight.
1
Florence Vespa Tour: Tuscan Hills and Italian Cuisine
Ride an automatic Vespa from Florence into the Tuscan hills with guides such as Leo, Alex, Ado, or Chris. After a safety test, you’ll pass Piazzale Michelangelo, Pozzolatico, and San Miniato al Monte, then eat bruschetta, pasta, cheese, salami, and wine at a country estate linked to Galileo’s area. A Fiat alternative may be available if you cannot ride safely.
From · $78
Read our review →
2
Vespa Sidecar Tour By Night with Pickup
from $146
3
Rome Morning Vespa Sidecar Tour in Rome with Cappuccino
from $163
4
Barcelona Private Tour by Sidecar Motorcycle
from $199
5
Chianti Vespa Tour with Lunch from Florence & E-car Option
from $125
6
Explore the City by Vespa with an Optional Photoshoot
from $37
7
Rome Vespa Scooter Tour with Professional Photographer
from $66
8
Paris Private Flexible Duration Guided Tour on a Vintage Sidecar
from $119
Do you drive the Vespa, or does the Vespa driver drive you?
In Italy a 50cc is a car-licence machine and most operators want an International Driving Permit alongside it. Anything larger needs a motorcycle licence. If you hold neither, or you would rather watch the road than read it, you go pillion or you take the sidecar. Helmets come with the scooter and are worn.
The best Vespa roads start where the city stops.
Chianti out of Florence, terraced lanes above Funchal, rice fields an hour from Hanoi. The countryside rides trade traffic for a cellar, a farmhouse lunch and a road with nothing else on it.
Every countryside ride →
What a day on a Vespa actually costs.
Every ride on the site grouped by price. A city lap costs less than dinner. A private day on the Amalfi road costs a good deal more.
City laps, photo rides and the short self-drive hours you slot around lunch.
Half-day sidecar runs, Hanoi food rides and the standard Chianti loop with a tasting.
Private drivers, full Tuscan days with lunch, and the Amalfi cliff road to yourselves.
Three Italian machines the Vespa operators keep out the back.
Behind the scooters most garages hold a Fiat 500 with the roof rolled back, a three-wheeled Ape, and a photographer who rides along.
The vintage Fiat 500
The 500 was built for the same streets as the Vespa and is barely wider than one. Most tour cars are restored 1960s and 1970s Cinquecentos with a canvas roof that rolls all the way back, so you get the open-air view with somewhere to put a bag. You either follow a lead car in convoy or a driver takes it, and the gearbox is unsynchronised, which is why the self-drive versions come with a lesson in the car park first.
- 1Chianti Wine Region Vespa or Fiat Topolino Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 739 reviews
- 2Self-Drive Vintage Fiat 500 Tour from Florence: Tuscan Hills and Italian Cuisine★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 719 reviews
- 3Self-Drive Vintage Fiat 500 Tour from Florence: Tuscan Wine Experience★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 660 reviews
The Ape Calessino
Piaggio built the Ape out of the Vespa in 1948 by adding a wheel and a load bed. The Calessino is the bench-seat version with a fringed canvas roof, still made for hotels on the Amalfi coast and Capri. It tops out somewhere near forty and is driven for you, which on a coast road with that many blind bends is the right way round.
- 1Private Tour of Taranto aboard an Ape Calessino★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 230 reviews
- 2Ape Tour Matera – Panoramic tour in ape calessino★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 176 reviews
- 3Ape Calessino Tour Sassi of Matera “Standard”★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 159 reviews
The Vespa photo ride
A second rider follows the group with a camera and shoots you moving, which is the picture nobody gets on a walking tour. Rome runs most of them, usually in the first two hours after sunrise while the fountains are empty. You get the edited files a day or two later, and the good operators say up front how many.
- 1Explore the City by Vespa with an Optional Photoshoot★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,103 reviews
- 2Rome Vespa Scooter Tour with Professional Photographer★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 857 reviews
- 3Vespa Ride with Pictures and Sweet Tastings★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 723 reviews
Four Vespa bookings that will not wait.
Most of this can be arranged over breakfast the day before. These four cannot: the fleets are small, the light is short and the paperwork takes an hour of somebody's morning.
- 01Vespa Sidecar Tour By Night with PickupA sidecar holds two, so an operator has exactly as many seats as it has chairs. Roman weekends go first.
- 02Chianti Vespa Tour with Lunch from Florence & E-car OptionThe Chianti runs leave once each morning and the winery at the far end has already been told how many are coming.
- 03Self-Drive Vintage Fiat 500 Tour from Florence: Tuscan Hills and Italian CuisineThere are only so many restored 500s in Rome, and half of them spend the season on weddings and photo shoots.
- 04Rome Vespa Scooter Tour with Professional PhotographerThe photographer rides with one group at a time, and the light that makes the shots is a two-hour window at either end of the day.
Rome is a city built to exactly the size of a Vespa.
The centro is cobbles, one-way lanes and gates a coach will never fit through. A scooter reaches everything the walking tour does in a fifth of the time and parks against a wall when it gets there. Ride it yourself, or take the chair and look up.
- 1Vespa Sidecar Tour By Night with Pickupfrom $146
- 2Rome Morning Vespa Sidecar Tour in Rome with Cappuccinofrom $163
- 3Explore the City by Vespa with an Optional Photoshootfrom $37
Rome, Siena, Florence, Sorrento, the Amalfi road: the fortnight most riders build.
Siena
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