As a non-driver it takes something really special in the vehicular line to really get me excited. But when a friend sent me a picture of their recent purchase, a vintage Vespa with a sidecar, the sheer beauty of it made me gasp.

I’ve yearned for a Vespa for a long time...in my daydreams it was chocolate brown and caramel...so that it matched my Louis Vuitton damier crash helmet, you understand. The fact that I could only ride it for a few months of the year (coupled with my severe lack of balance) meant that the moped remained purely a fantasy item but the longing has always been there.

Now it's rekindled, except this time I'm in the sidecar...a kind of Quadrophenia Grace Kelly...