A Roman Holiday With Asta

My friend, Asta, has her very own red vespa, so I thought it would be fun to invite her for a vespa tour of Rome. She graciously accepted my invitation and agreed to meet me a noon in front the Colosseum. I asked Opus if he would like to come along, but he told me he had "other plans".

(click on all images for a better look)

Asta was at the Colosseum promptly at noon with her faithful red vespa at her side. After exchanging greetings and taking a few snaps shots, we decided it was time to get going.



Asta was ready with a beautiful red coat to match our red vespas. We decided it would be more fun to share a scooter, so she hopped on the back of mine and we took off!


The first place I took her was the "Bocca della verita", the mouth of truth. Legend has it that if you stick your paw inside and have told lies, it will bite your paw off! But if you are an honest animal, your paw will come out unscathed. I was too afraid to stick my paw inside because of little, white lie I MIGHT have told about a certain hairball on the living room rug. But honest Asta stuck her paw right in and it came out in one piece! What an honest doggy!


We drove all over Rome making stops at St. Peter's square, Castle St. Angelo, and the Pantheon where a man from my town is buried. Archangelo Corelli, the great musician and composer was born in our little town of Fusignano. He was such an important man of his time that they honored him by placing him in a tomb inside the Pantheon. Asta was very impressed by this


I wanted to be sure that Asta saw the famous Spanish Steps. Go there any time of the day and you will find all kinds of people sitting and walking on the steps. Asta dared me to drive down the steps and so I did. It was a little more bumpy than we had planed and Asta almost fell off the vespa! There were some local police waiting for us at the bottom of the steps, but lucky for us they couldn't out run the power of the vespa!


It was starting to get late and Miss Asta had to get heading back to New York. There was one more place we HAD to stop before she left. I took her to the Trevi Fountain. Legend says that if you throw a coin into the beautiful fountain, it will guarantee your return to Rome one day. Asta and I threw in a couple of coins just to be on the safe side.


I took Asta back her vespa where we said our good byes and took one last photo. It had been a wonderful day full of adventure and friendship. It was so nice to spend the day with a friend who loves vespas as much me.


I started back toward home when I noticed a flashy, red car speed by me. I didn't get a good look, but swear I saw Opus driving a Ferrari with Momo the dog, Momo the cat and Sassy along for the ride.

I blinked twice, to get a better look, but by then the fast Ferrari was long gone.