So just to clear up the Vespa story from the other day…
Matteo and I looked up prices for a fender (used) and front light lens online and it would come out to about 50€ to replace all the parts that were damaged on the Vespa. Since the front fender was a bit buggered to begin with I wasn’t worried about trying to get the guy to pay for installation as well since I had already pondered replacing it. I was happy just to have him pay for some parts. Matteo called the dude on Friday and we agreed to meet and just get 50€ off him and call it good.

sidebar…I had to tell my story about 10 times on Friday as news apparently travels fast 😉 I had a mosquito bite sized bit of skin damage to show off so the story really wasn’t that compelling. I did figure out that the first couple times I told the story I left out important elements…the third time I got it down and the fourth time I was able to tell it with gusto, but after the fifth time I got bored and after a couple more times the story just sort of retards to “yeah…something happened, but I’m fine”. Let’s talk about the weather or something else…This  is why all my stories inevitable end up getting a rating of 1 (out of 10)…I just don’t really tell stories.

so that was the wrapup.
Today went to a couple scooter shops and got directions and then a quote. Went back out a bit later and go to this Vespa only shop near here. It was closed the first time I went by, but it’s open now. The guy was super nice. I was just hoping for a blinker lens as that seemed most critical at the moment.

He ended up hammering out the fender, gave me a new lens cover, greased everything up, adjusted the brakes, fixed another minor electrical problem etc.

After all that I asked for a price of a used seat, so he goes upstairs and comes back with a different used seat and a seat cover. I just took the cover since the other seat he had was also a bit wankered. All in all he must have spent at least 30 solid minutes just working on my Vespa. He was waffling over naming a price and as I only had 60€ on me my only concern was that it would cost more than that (which was fair in my mind). He consults with his daughter (approx age 7) on how much to charge me. She was shy so he just says tredici (30)…I was a bit surprised and told him to take 40. He wasn’t going to but when he opened his wallet he had a 1o€ and 50€ note…so he gives me the 10 and waves his hands around about not having change and says “OK 40, but you come back later for 10″. I won’t. Nice guy.
In the time I was there several other Vespa owners came up, so I guess the place is actually a Vespa club and stuff. Everyone was pretty nice.

Towards the end he asked if I was english? I said american and I think he asked me where in America (in Italian). Since he didn’t say dov’e I didn’t  know what he was saying.
I gave him the confused look…he says in english ‘New York, Miami, where?” I said Portland, but he didn’t know it so I said near Seattle…I’m pretty sure he doesn’t know where Seattle is, but I’m sure he’s heard of it.

It’s funny cuz now that I’m thinking about it I think a lot of Italian men have said to me “New York, Miami…”? I’m now of the opinion that a lot of older Italian men only know about New York and Miami…