Italy says happy 70th birthday to iconic scooter

Design classic and symbol of the dolce vita, the Vespa turned 70 last month and Italy's most celebrated scooter is buzzing along nicely after tripling sales in the last decade.

It was on a Vespa that Gregory Peck pursued Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday, the 1953 film that helped make the marque synonymous internationally with the Roman capital.

But it was actually in Florence that the wasp-shaped two-wheeler was born, Enrico Piaggio having registered the patent in the Tuscan capital on April 23, 1946.