Category: Vespa/Ape

Italian ape on History Channel

History Channel Fri Jan 29, they find a one of a kind soft top 1950’s Italian, Piaggio Vespa based Ape Calessino. “Super Scooter” episode of American Picker. 10 PM EST. This was an awesome find. totally charming bit of Italy that had washed up on the shores of western Illinois it appears. vespa-ape-11

Similiar to this one shown here. But, the one on the show was tricked out with a canvas top. Be still my beating heart. Midge says she thinks i would have to be “VERY good” to get one of these. Shoot. There goes another ape.

See you in Italy. Which is more than a web site, its a soon to be fact. Coming up 36 hours in Panicale. Next week end. Stay tuned to this Bat Channel. Be interesting to see how this works out.

Stew Vreeland

And a very ‘Ape New Year to you, too

Adopting a little Italian Ape (three wheeled mini-pickup based on a Vespa.) We went all the way to the far side of Ontario, Canada to get our motorized memory of all things Italian.

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CASOLE VAL D’ELSA–Ape means bee in italian and you probably know it is pronounced ahh-pay. Other wise the headline here is really hanging by a thread. Wouldn’t be the first time, you say? If you saw the earlier blogs about Adopting a little Italian Ape (three wheeled mini-pickup based on a Vespa) you know we went all the way to the far side of Ontario, Canada to get our motorized memory of all things Italian. Just the sound of it takes me there and I’m tickled and surprised to see it every time I go to the barn. But Bad Monkey that it is, as soon as we got it home to Maine it immediately decided to test our love for it by pitching some kind of mechanical fit. So, it had to go to the time-out corner of Peter Brown’s Cumberland Avenue Garage and get totally taken apart, and then put back together. If you’d like to see and hear that distinctive buzz, check out Our Ape Road Test Video on You Tube. Its film debut/road testing/second home coming. First trip was 22 miles with snow in the air. We made it!
italian ape made by vespa
The photo here was just taken a few days ago in Casole Val d’Elsa by our friends at Avis Studio in Portsmouth, NH. Paul and Jane just got back from several weeks at Spannocchia the thousand acre, sustainable agri-cultural estate. It is in the heart of Tuscany, just outside Siena and we write about it often here. Can’t wait to hear all their stories.

OK, see you in Italy,

Stew Vreeland

Honey, I’m home. (part six of a series)

Arriving in Maine from Canada. Ape in tow.

GRAY, Maine–Midge, this cute Italian followed me home. Can we keep her? Pleease? Well, we did it. We brought this piece of Italy home to remind us of the old country every time we step out the kitchen door into the garage there. As if we need Italy reminders!
bringing home a bit of italy. an Ape?!
bring home an italian ape. from canada
Could a stranger be forgiven for thinking this part of Maine is crawling with apes? Apes around every corner like we were in downtown Siena or something. Having one in town is just some guy (Paul) being eccentric and leading edge. Two is surely the beginning of a trend, no? I drove it around the yard a bit last night and realized I was way too trippunchy to do that so I bucking bronco’d it into its new home and turned off the key. And went to bed. whew. Going to get comfy driving it this weekend. I’ve never had a motorcycle with hand operated clutch, so I keep moving my left foot around over there. Nope, still nothing there. I’ll get it. Until then, looking into the garage you just want to pinch it on its cheek, it is so cute sitting there.

Before calling it a day, we stopped at our major benefactor’s office, so Bill Goddard could see the whole righteous rig that his valiant Tahoe drug across all of Northern New England and a full Canadian province. Then we showed the STV marketing team the new Company Car and then home. Home. Love the sound of that. By evening I had confused the town hall and the State of Maine as well. They really didn’t have a book sitting around where they could research initial sales prices of one of these. But they kept after it and eventually it worked out, I gave them some money and they gave me a plate.

All’s well that ends well and this may be the end of this part of this adventure. I will try to do one more wrap up with the a photo gallery that shows the Canadian Countryside and the trip adventures in more photo detail. We’ll see how the weekend goes. Thanks for coming along for the ride. Saluti a tutti!

(travel note: the Lavazza Cafe was a giant fun surprise to find on the Mass Pike. Plaza just before Worchester.)

See you in Italy,

Stew Vreeland

FULL MOON. OVER ALBANY.(part five of a series)

EAST GREENBUSH, NY–The miles seemed to just drop away. Heading these Italian horses for their new barns in Maine. Blue skies now instead of steely grey. We pull into an oasis just this side of Albany to think about how far we’re willing to go today before calling it a day. Paul’s first test drive in his Lancia is three and a half hours and its passing with flying colors. Red, white and green?
Italian Lancia, paper plates
We go into the Roy Rogers at twilight, a few bites of a chicken sandwich later it seems pitch black and the Lancia has no lights. OK. Not so good. Luckily Paul thinks like an engineer and somehow defroster settings bring the tail lights to life and fog light setting make the nose end look right. The State Trooper that swooped around me and onto Paul’s tail didn’t see it quite like that and flipped on his multicolored lights to have a better look at him. Handmade paper license plates by us over coffee in Buffalo, no light for the paper plate, and left headlight completely out. That is how he saw it. And who said we could make our own license anyway? He eventually tired of asking questions and let Paul go.
evening in lancia
But oh, that full moon. Huge. Glad I had plenty of time to admire it while Paul talked to Mr Trooper. Kind of glad he hadn’t noticed Paul was wearing one of those miner’s hat things with a light on it when he pulled him over. No instrument lights and he’d wanted to have an idea of how fast or not he was going. He flipped the switch on that and tossed it on the floor as he was pulling over.

Definitely time to get off the road. Only one hour of night driving. But that hour was a long one. Only four or five hours to go. Lets do them tomorrow.

In the day light. We’ll unscramble that Lancia’s wiring another day.

See you in Italy. And if you see me in Gray, Maine, I’ll be the one riding the Green Ape.

Stew Vreeland

Can Stew come out to play?(part four of a series)

Ape in New York State of mind again

So, I was in the hotel waiting for Paul to come back from the bank where he was getting a check for his Lancia. Right by the window comes the Ape. If it could knock on the window I think it would have. Paul had just called me from the bank asking for the seller’s name. He came out of the bank and a real Sicilian was there in the parking lot with tears in his eyes admiring the Ape. He said he had been here for years and it never occured to him that he could have been driving the Ape he learned to drive on. I gave Paul Ken’s phone number in Ontario but said I had the title here in the room and to stop dragging it around town soliciting offers. NFS.
italian ape outside our window
About an hour countdown to Lancia purchase and then this Italian car-a-van is really pointed homewards.

You can’t see the falls from the hotel. That was from the Rainbow Bridge as we nervously approached customs yesterday. For now we are coming to you from the Holiday Inn in Amherst, NY somewhere near the falls. Look for the room with the Ape with its face pressed up against the window. It is ready to come see its new home.

on the road again soon,

Stew