At the moment I am on holiday for several weeks on the island of Tenerife, one of the Canary Islands, situated in the Northern Atlantic ocean, about a 100 kilometers from Marocco. The Canary Islands belong to Spain. Although it is still early spring in the northern hemisphere, the temperature on Tenerife is between 25-30°c with a steady cooling ocean breeze. In short the weather is phantastic not only to sun on the many beaches of the island and swim in the sea but also to do trips all over the island with cabriolets, jeeps and...motor scooters. And that I find quite remarkable that after more than 40 years after the heydays of the motor scooters, especially in the southern countries of Europe like Italy, Spain and Southern France, they are still very popular with the youth as a means of easy transportation. You would think that the youth are aiming now a days at having a car as soon as possible but clearly that is not the case they still appreciate a lesser means of transportation. So the motor scooter is still very prominent visible in the streets and along the beach promenades.
During the second half of the 60's when Marisa Mell took residence in Italy she did several photo shoots for the Italian motor scooter brand "Lambretta", manufactured by the company "Innocenti". She was not alone in advertising for this brand. Almost every known movie and record star was one way or another connected to the motor scooter craze from that moment. It was just "the" way of transportation for the teens and adolescents during hot summer days and nights. From today's point of view these photo commercials look rather silly and very staged but a motor scooter is not really an easy object to market.
Personally I like the photo commercial for the "Vespa" motor scooter much better. Although shot in the same vain as the "Lambretta" commercial it is a little more glamorous and tends more to the personality of Marisa Mell than the other two photo's but that is a question of taste! And now back to "La Dolce Vita"!