After successfully completing an around-the-world voyage, the Italian navy’s Amerigo Vespucci is now on a tour of its home country’s main ports.
The vessel left Genoa on 1 July 2023 and returned to Italy almost two years later, reaching Trieste in March.
Once it reached home, it began an 18-stage tour that will finish on 10 June. This journey includes stops in Italy’s largest ports as well as others in Durres, Albania, and Valletta, Malta.
As with the world tour, the Mediterranean leg will see the ship — which is named after a famous explorer — promote an immersive exhibition called Italy Village.
Set up in the ports that the ship visits, the exhibition will tell visitors about the boat’s mission, Italian culture and the strength of the sea as a symbol of union.
The unique school ship
On routes between Brindisi and Reggio Calabria and between Livorno and Genoa, cadets of the First Class of the Naval Academy spent time on the Vespucci as part of their training programme.
Young sailors aged between 12 and 17 were also onboard, thanks to a collaboration with the Italian Sailing Federation.
Captain Giuseppe Lai personally benefitted from such an experience when he was young.
Long before commanding the Vespucci on its second round-the-world voyage, he sailed on it as a student.
“At the Naval Academy, the campaign on the Vespucci is done at the end of the first year,” he told Euronews.
“For me, as for all my classmates, it was the first time we went on a ship and lived life onboard. Going back there as a captain makes you relive some of the same emotions, because it is a ship that has remained crystallised in its aesthetics, almost identical to when it was launched,” the captain said.
“Seeing the trainees on board today made me go back in time, and it is a strong incentive to pass on to them those lessons that each of us has absorbed in our careers,” he added.
The Vespucci’s round-the-world tour
On its world tour, the Vespucci travelled to 30 countries in 20 months, with over 400,000 visitors coming onboard.
“A round-the-world voyage aboard the Vespucci is probably the most beautiful experience a navy commander can have,” Lai continued.
“In its 94-year history, the ship has only been round the world twice. It is a unique feat, and an enormous privilege: it allows you to discover other cultures and, at the same time, to make Italy known to the world,” he said.
The ship’s history
Built in 1930 in the Regio Cantiere Navale di Castellammare di Stabia shipyard and launched in February 1931, the Vespucci entered service in the Regia Marina a few months later.
Ever since, she has trained Italy naval officers and represented Italy in the world.
The ship’s motto, which is engraved on the stern, is now proverbial: ‘Not he who begins but he who perseveres’.
The Vespucci is 101-metres long and over 15-metres wide with three masts and 2,635-square metres of sails.
The hull is made of steel, the decks of teak and the interior of precious woods. A major modernisation was completed in 2016, equipping it with a new diesel-electric propulsion system. Whenever possible, however, it is still the wind that propels her.
At 94-years-old, she is now the Italian navy’s longest serving ship.
