Scooters- Italy

Scooters... Ah Scooters, I grew fond of scooters after I was house sitting for a friend of mine and was given the opportunity to use his car, shortly after the first drive I blew one of the hoses and the car was no longer an option. He had a scooter, I used it to travel an hour in the winter to and from work, raining and dark. They're a lot of fun and are constantly on 'Full-Tit' mode, even with head down, tail winds and down hill they reach a max of 60kmph. You look like an idiot driving them in Australia or NZ.
But in Italy, wow, only the coolest of cool kids drive, and when I say drive man can they drive them! I've seen:
Wheelings and dealings,
Overtaking buses on hairpin blind corners (practically 1 lane anyway)
I've seen ones with two wheels on the front,
Ones with a small cab and a ute flat deck on the back (I like to call them a Scooter+ute = Scute) which has one wheel at the front and two at the back to hold up the deck
I've been on one with two other people holding onto the plastic at the back bouncing on cobble stone streets to a pizzaria
I've seen families of four on them, kid stands in the front dad holds onto kid and steers, mum's on the back holding onto second kid in front of her.
I've seen the second person on the scooter reading a full sized news paper
I've seen the second person on the scooter holding on to a baby
I've seen the first person holding a frappè and smoking
No one wears helmets
Everyone toots and raises arms at each other

But my hat is tipped, whenever I see them outside a cafè leaning up against their vespas with a cigarette hanging out their mouth.
They deserve it, they may not live till they're 30 but their antics and skill on a 50cc beast is amazing to all that are able to catch a glimpse of them fly by