Vroom with a View: Milan to Rome on a ’61 Vespa

He was an Australian author approaching forty.
She was a fading Italian beauty from the sixties.
They met on the Internet and spent one unforgettable summer together travelling from Milan to Rome.

Only one thing stood in the way of their perfect love – Sophia was a motor scooter.

After a late-night Tae Bo fitness commercial warns him that his life may be over when he turns forty, Peter Moore decides to pursue a boyhood dream sparked by watching old Sophia Loren movies – to putt-putt around Italy on a 1961 Vespa, living la dolce vita.

It couldn’t be just any Vespa. Peter wanted a bike as old as he was and in the same condition – a little rough around the edges, but still going okay.

And it had to have saddle seats. And a temperamental electrical system.

With a little too much chrome. The sort of motor scooter you’d see a young Marcello Mastroianni riding in a sharp suit and Ray Bans.

From picnicking in the Italian alps to exploring tumbledown seaside villages, gate-crashing Frances Mayes’s villa or re-enacting Roman Holiday, Vroom with a View is as much a romance as a travel adventure. Not only does Peter sweep the woman of his dreams off her feet, he falls in love with a side of Italy others rarely see. And it’s all thanks to Sophia, his Vespa, who charms her way into people’s hearts wherever she goes, bringing back old memories and long-forgotten dreams.