Perhaps I should explain more about the Vespa...
Forty-five years ago, on the Vespa, I was exploring a pretty lane winding through plots and pieces among vines and hedges and ran right into a fella in a small three-wheeled "Ape". I was rubbernecking and didn't see him at all.
Bam! I was (lying) on the road, looking up. A man with a sweet smile helped me to my feet.
I couldn't speak Italian then, but with his evident good will, I was persuaded to help him load the wounded Vespa into his Ape. We arrived at Te-Te's garage. This was the first of many accidents and visits to Te-Te, who kept the thing running all these years.
I have moved 12 or more tons with this Vespa, including stone I took from the quarries and riverbeds—both for myself and others. To keep the scooter running, Te-Te would have to change the rings—but I had my rock.
One of his inventions you can see in the photo is a sort of running board he added in aluminum—the original skimpy steel flange was not adequate to the loads I attempted. I was able to pile stones onto the handlebars so I could just turn. It had to be 250/300 pounds, sometimes.
Robert's much-ridden, much-encumbered, much-repaired Vespa.
You can make out Te-Te's addition of the aluminum running board, to help balance heavy loads of marble.
Of course, the machine was not conceived for such extremes and Te-Te noticed that the frame was splitting underneath, so he turned it upside down and welded it.
Once Te-Te said to me, "Robert, you bring me problems I have never seen before".
I explored all the roads and villages, all the way to the high quarries. One guy said to me, "you got up here on THAT?"
We have beautiful stones here and I have spent a life searching for them in the quarries. Imagine a honking big piece of pure white stone—you can't just leave it there! One way or another, you get it off the mountain.
When I loaded the Vespa, I could not use the brake and there was no room for my legs either. Since I couldn't reach the brake, I put it in low and started down. The National Security Council does not recommend this, but I managed without major accidents.
Walking in the river all these years, I've enjoyed the quiet serendipity of occasionally spotting an oddment and setting it aside. Small piles were added to larger piles at places in the river where I put them over the wall and came for them with the Vespa.
I have the wish to donate the Vespa to the Piaggio museum near here (Carrara), in Pontedera-Piaggio, where there is a collection of such artifacts. The motor was designed to start airplane engines during WW 2. Italian ingenuity has transformed that simple mechanism into a variety of uses—one of which is rock hunting.
—Robert Gove, Carrara, Italy