Vespa House
Melbourne shopping
Vespa House, a landmark in the scooter history of Melbourne, was opened as a full time scooter workshop in 1956 by an immigrant from Northern Italy by the name of Vittorio (Tony) Tonon. It has passed through 3 generations with his son Frank and Franks son, Dean, continuing the tradition by running the workshop and showroom, respectively, to this day. Another Vespa House legend is Giovanni (Johnny) Scriba who started at Vespa House as a mechanic in 1960. In 1967 both he and Vespa House reverted to part time due to the slowing down of the scooter phenomenon. John originally worked at his cousin’s workshop as an apprentice mechanic in Italy when he decided to migrate and at the age of 20 arrived in Australia in October 1959. He has chalked up 36 years as a Vespa House mechanic. Vespa House, in its forty plus years, has not only worked on Vespas but all types of scooters, however proudly remembers servicing four times as many Piaggio Vespa’s than Innocenti Lambretta’s, Piaggio’s bitter rivals back in the scooter halcyon days of the early sixties. The latest chapter of the Vespa House story has been the opening of their permanent showroom in February 1996 manned by a third generation Tonon, Dean. “Vespa House”, “Tonon family”, “Vespa scooters” - all interchangeable terms in the history and legend of scooters in Melbourne, Australia.
Vespa House : 157 Johnston Street, Collingwood
Website : www.vespa-house.com.au
Phone : (03) 9417 0342
