quirky museums near Milan, part 2 (of 2) : the vintage petrol station museum

the tale of our wandering around Milano looking for curiosities continues. after our visit to Vittorio Tessera's scooter & lambretta museum,  our bucket list led us to another awesomely weird collection: Museo Fisogni.

the Fisogni Museum of the Petrol Station is the world's largest collection of anything related to the history of fuel pumps and gasoline distribution, from the XIX century to the '90s. 

quirky museums near Milan, part 1 (of 2) : the scooter & lambretta museum

let's go to Milan and check something off that list

I am a list maker. I make list everytime, for everything. I have dozens of bullet points to (sooner or later) check off, they are on the files in my computer, handwritten and hanging on the board next to my desk, on the pages of my many notebooks. one of those list is named "Marco and Silvia's places to visit", and, since it came to our attention, several years ago,  that a lambretta museum existed, of course it entered the list, to be finally marked with a satisfying tick a few weeks ago: our pilgrimage has been done. 

Collezione Salce, vintage poster museum in Treviso

there was a time when advertising posters were artworks. I am clearly just one of the many fans of this almost lost form of art (as I stated many times). 

Mr. Nando Salce was a bright and wealthy man who had been playing in the adverts lovers team in the best possible way: born in 1877 in Treviso, at the age of 17 years he started to collect affiches and continued doing that till his death in 1962. with his will, he donated the entire collection of more than 25.000 posters to the Italian state. 

a few weeks ago, a new museum finally opened in the historic center of Treviso: Collezione Salce, so now we can all enjoy the artworks and share Mr. Salce's passion. 

my lambretta alphabet: letter #A

illustrated ABC's of what lambretta world is to me.

a for adventure

vintage tour in Val d'Orcia

Val d'Orcia with a rented lambretta

that's on top of my wish list: to be able to travel with a lambretta anywhere we want. yes, we can drive our own or ship it, but we don't aways have the time to do something like that (not to mention the costs). and to rent an original vintage scooter is almost impossible. almost.

visiting Tuscany on a vintage Italian scooter

the dreamer Dario fought the impossible founding Vintage Tours, an agency renting vespas, lambrettas and vintage cars in one of the most beautiful region of Italy, Tuscany.

Mercanti in Viaggio, handmade & vintage fair. October, Sunday 11th

vintage decor stall | vscocam

Marco found out about Mercanti in Viaggio last spring, when he wanted to take me there for a weekend for my birthday. due to prior commitments though, we weren't able to make it. the name means travelling merchants, and it's a vintage and handmade fair held at Castello Quistini, a gorgeous villa in a town called Rovato. it has a spring and a fall edition, in april and october, every year.

la pappa col pomodoro. a dish with groovy sixties vibes

Rita Pavone is an italian singer and showgirl that used to be very popular in the sixties. she was an icon, like an italian Twiggy {plus, she could dance}.
some of her hits had been embedded in italian pop culture, so even an eighties kid like me know them by line. one of her songs is called viva la pappa col pomodoro, where the pappa col pomodoro is a traditional tuscan soup, made by bread, tomatoes, garlic and fresh basil.
until a few weeks ago, i had never tasted it!

vintage market in Portobuffolè. April, Sunday 13th

Portobuffolè is the smallest town in Treviso province. just 800 people are living there. however, it's a charming little corner, with a quite important artistic and historical value, in spite of the small dimensions.
in 1300, a noblewoman called Gaia da Camino received the town as a wedding gift from her husband (what a nice gift, a town!) an it seems that made its beauty and importance grow in the following years. now we still can see elegant buildings from XIV-XVI sec.

vintage lambretta advertising

our newest acquisition from the local antiques market, in Vittorio Veneto.
a page from a 1959 italian magazine featuring a lambretta adv.

it will look great near the same year's playboy cover!

lambretta in Calabria. July, Sunday 21st

i've said we could not bring our lambretta in Calabria. true. but this didn't stop us to take a lambretta ride on the calabrian streets.
we found out that near the Raganello Valley there is a quite large and lively lambretta club, it would have been a shame not to meet them!

the Lambretta Club Calabriais based in Castovillari, a town near Civita. they were so nice to come and pick us up. after a quick ride, they showed us the club HQ, so while they talked about lambretta and motors stuff, i was free to browse through the incredible amount of memorabilia they collected: posters, scarfs and above all, photos. dozen of vintage photos of couples, families, friends with their lambretta. black and white daily life scenes, documenting the italian rural life from the fifties to the seventies. all the pictures has been taken in the Cosenza province. Simone, the guy who invited us in the first place, owner of a shiny purple and white lambrettas, was so kind to send me some of them, so here they are:

{nikon f-801 + fujicolor 200}

Playboy, June 1959

my Valentine's present for Marco. a Playboy issue with a Lambretta illustration on the cover, dated June 1959.
on the inside, there are a beautiful photoshoot by the photographer-satirist Jerry Yulsman on the motor scooter theme (Veni, Vidi, Vespa!)  and a Kerouac contribution on the Beat Generation.

"Woe unto those who spit on the Beat Generation" 
J.K.

from Valdobbiadene with love

Some other pics taken at the photoshooting in Valdobbiadene

The Others

Beautiful, inspiring, interesting things seen on the road.

M.