Mysterious black and white Vespa photo

I have a lazyweb question for the internets. Does anyone know anything about this photo? Like who took it? Where? When? Who’s riding the #90 scooter up a dirt road on the side of a mountain? Is he racing? What type of scooter is that? What does the writing on the photo say? What language is that?

Mysterious old black and white Vespa photo

I have more questions than answers, in fact the only answer I have is where I was when took this shot with my cameraphone. Though I could call the place to see if they have any information, I thought first it’d be more fun to draw on the web’s collective knowledge.

My rudimentary searches turned up blanks, so I bow before anyone who knows the proper incantation to elicit an answer from Google. Of course if you already know something about this photo, that helps too, but if not, I’d definitely be interested in knowing how you found it as much as what you found.

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ok so , I can’t read cursive writing, so if you could spell it out that would be great. I think then you can take that information and use a free translator to figure out what it might say.

Well, that definitely looks like an Italian landscape behind him. The scooter looks like a Vespa. I first guessed at 1920s or ’30s but the Vespa wasn’t launched until 1946.

I’m not sure if he’s racing, it doesn’t look like he’s following a racing line, but then his helmet and overalls make him look more like a racer. I’m guessing most normal folk just wore normal clothes for scooters, much like today, and maybe they wouldn’t wear a helmet.

The writing looks Italian. I don’t know Italian so it’s hard to read it but there’s a couple of “di” = “of”. You’d best find an Italian speaker to translate.

A cool photo, good luck!

It’s only part of a sentence and very difficult to read because the author (Carletto, perhaps)”Chuck” in American is saying something about “Alberto placing second behind me” The language is Italian the countryside probably is too and I’m guessing from the motorcycle handlebars and no headlight on the front fender its the 1950s.

ciao, the picture is that of an Italian riding a Vespa.

The sentence, though, is weird, as it’s written by a Carletto (li’l Carl) saying “my dear Alberto, who after me only has…” and the second line says “spirit of a Bersagliere (a military historical corps) and a heart for long-distance races”

The sentence is obviously truncated. It could help if you told us where did you shoot it, me miss the contest! The landscape is almost certainly Italy in the 50’s.

Ale, the “contest” continues, and so far you look to be the winner, at least as far as providing a workable translation. When I have a chance I’ll follow up with the place I took the photo and see if I can find out what they know.

im trying to find the vespa ciao looks like a bycicle power with gas is