Giorgio Bettinelli (Crema, 15 May 1955 - China, 16 september 2008) has been a journalist, writer,singer and Italian traveller. Graduated in Italian literature near the university of Rome, he is famous for his long four completed travels on Vespa. In fact during his staying in Indonesia at 37 he was given a vespa as a series of not paid debts,a moped he falls in love with straight away.
In his first travel he leaves from Rome, 1992, heading to Saigon(Vietnam) as final destination where he will arrive nine months later having covered 24,000 kilometers.During his second trip he rides 36.000 Kms on his motor scooter from Anchorage(Alsaka) to "La Tierra del Fuego"(Chile).In his third trip he travels from Melbourne to Cape Town covering 52 Kms from 1995 to 1996.The fourth trip called Worldwide Odyssey took him more than three years to get from Chile to Tasmania covering this time 144,000 km passing through all the continents.After four long trips on five 1978-old-design Vespa(one confiscated by a Yemen guerilla group where he miraculously escaped free),crossing 134 countries,covering 254.000 Kms,he decides to face an adventurous travel in China (where he relocated and married) on a Twist-and-go modern Vespa.Giorgio Bettinelli died in China, 16 september 2008, at the age of 53 years old for an unexpected sickness. There he lived for four years, by the river Mekong, with his wife Yapei. He was preparing another book, this time on a programmed trip in Tibet.
It’s probably easier to list the countries where Bettinelli didn’t travel, rather than where he did as he completed epic trips from Europe across the continent into China. Travelling with his simple and honest Vespa PX 150, with his guitar and backpack, Bettinelli did things that many of us dream of but never achieve in our modern life. He was an incredible man, with a different path in life and a vision of things that was appreciated by many Italians.
BibliographyIn his first travel he leaves from Rome, 1992, heading to Saigon(Vietnam) as final destination where he will arrive nine months later having covered 24,000 kilometers.During his second trip he rides 36.000 Kms on his motor scooter from Anchorage(Alsaka) to "La Tierra del Fuego"(Chile).In his third trip he travels from Melbourne to Cape Town covering 52 Kms from 1995 to 1996.The fourth trip called Worldwide Odyssey took him more than three years to get from Chile to Tasmania covering this time 144,000 km passing through all the continents.After four long trips on five 1978-old-design Vespa(one confiscated by a Yemen guerilla group where he miraculously escaped free),crossing 134 countries,covering 254.000 Kms,he decides to face an adventurous travel in China (where he relocated and married) on a Twist-and-go modern Vespa.Giorgio Bettinelli died in China, 16 september 2008, at the age of 53 years old for an unexpected sickness. There he lived for four years, by the river Mekong, with his wife Yapei. He was preparing another book, this time on a programmed trip in Tibet.
It’s probably easier to list the countries where Bettinelli didn’t travel, rather than where he did as he completed epic trips from Europe across the continent into China. Travelling with his simple and honest Vespa PX 150, with his guitar and backpack, Bettinelli did things that many of us dream of but never achieve in our modern life. He was an incredible man, with a different path in life and a vision of things that was appreciated by many Italians.
* In Vespa. From Rome to Saigon (Feltrinelli 1997), that it narrates the first travel
* In Vespa beyond the horizon (- Rusconi- 2002), 400 photos intensely lived during the 110,000 km of its first three travels
* Brum Brum. 254,000 kilometers in Vespa (Feltrinelli 2002): the others travels till the rapimento in the Congo
* Rhapsody In Black. In Vespa from Angola to the Yemen (Feltrinelli 2005)
* China in Vespa
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