The Piaggio Ape has been built since 1948.
It grew out of the Vespa, to which Enrico Piaggio added two rear wheels and a cargo bed.
Post-war Italy needed something that could carry a load and still fit down an alley too narrow for a car. Ape is Italian for bee — named after the sound of its single-cylinder engine.
I wanted a Piaggio Ape. Not a food truck, not a trailer. A three-wheeler that people photograph before they even get round to ordering.
The problem is that you simply cannot find one in the Czech Republic. After months of searching we came across a single one — in Cagliari, on the southern tip of Sardinia. Over two thousand kilometres away, on an island you can only reach by ferry.
So we went and got it.
The journey out was long. The journey back was longer.
Paperwork, Italian officialdom, waiting. Load it, strap it down, cross the island, make the ferry. Then back across the whole of Italy and half of Europe.
The hardest part came once we were home. Getting an Italian three-wheeler onto the Czech register and through a technical inspection took longer than the entire journey.
It took months. It was worth it.
We hire it to productions as a prop, and to companies as a mobile bar or a gelato catering unit.
For productions For corporate events
Phone +420 605 294 027
