Nave Amerigo Vespucci arrived in New York, as foreseen by the World Tour and Campaign program in North America, and on the day when the port of the Big Apple and the Hudson become one of the stages of celebrations for the 250 years of independence of the United States. The Navy’s school ship is one of the units involved in Sail4th250, the program that brings together large ships, military ships and air vehicles in a naval review built around 4 July. Vespucci will travel to Pier 86, in the area of the Intrepid Museum, and will depart on July 8.

It is the ninth time that the Navy’s school ship arrives in the city: the first was in 1933, at the end of its first ocean crossing, then the return of 1951, after the war, and more recently the stages of 2000 and 2017. In the middle there is also the most significant precedent, that of 1976, when Vespucci participated in the celebrations of the Bicentenary of the United States. Fifty years later, Hudson and New York Port returned to the same scenario for the 250 years of American independence. The link with the United States has often been told through a phrase almost inseparable from the ship, that of the carrier USS Independence that in 1962 saluted it as “the most beautiful ship in the world”.

After the parade the ship will be visited: public visits are scheduled on 5 and 6 July from 12 to 17.30, and on 7 July from 12 to 14.30, with mandatory reservation through the system of the Intrepid Museum. Access is free, but the number of places is limited.

In the following days the bridge of the ship will be used also for Italian institutional appointments. Sunday 5 July Veronafiere, Vinitaly and ITA will present Vinitaly. USA, that is the attempt to strengthen in the United States a story of Italian wine that not only passes from the great brands already known, but also from the territories and productions less known to the American public. The same evening the trophy of the America’s Cup will be on board, also because the next edition of the competition will be held in Naples in 2027, with the Match scheduled from July 10.

The program will continue on Monday with a meeting of the Fondazione Francesca Rava and with an appointment promoted by the Municipality of Genoa, which will use the stage to present itself to tour operators and specialized press. On Tuesday, July 7, the ship will enter a more directly diplomatic context, with an event linked to the fifth United Nations Chiefs of Police Summit, dedicated to the protection of cultural heritage in peace operations. The Italian Representation at the UN announced the streaming link from the Amerigo Vespucci for the meeting on security, criminal threats and protection of cultural goods.

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Nave Amerigo Vespucci will be visited in New York for three days, during his stop at Pier 86, in the Hudson River Park area, next to the Intrepid Museum. Visits on board are scheduled on Sunday 5 and Monday 6 July from 12 to 17.30, with last entrance at 17, and Tuesday 7 July from 12 to 14.30, with last entrance at 14. Access is free, but not free: you must register in advance through the portal indicated on the official website of the Tour Vespucci, which refers to the reservation system of the Intrepid Museum. The seats are limited and the same organization states that the reservation does not automatically guarantee access, because security checks, queues and capacity limits remain possible on the pier.

The presence of Vespucci in New York is part of the Sail4th 250 program, one of the initiatives organized for the 250th anniversary of the United States. From 4 to 8 July the port of New York and New Jersey will host dozens of great sailing ships and military ships from different countries, with public events, on-board visits and a great parade on the Hudson. The Vespucci will be moored in one of the most important points of the New York waterfront, Pier 86, the same of the museum from the carrier Intrepid: in those days that stretch of Manhattan will become one of the main places of the naval celebration, and the Vespucci will play a leading role.

The Marina Militare school ship was launched in 1931 in Castellammare di Stabia and is still used today for the formation of official students. It is 101 meters long, has three trees, over 2,600 square meters of sails and an ordinary crew of 264 soldiers, which during the training campaigns increases with the students of the Naval Academy. Visits to New York will not be guided, but the public can follow a route on board and talk to the crew members.

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On July 7, the Amerigo Vespucci school ship docked in New York will host the Italian Permanent Mission to the UN for a meeting on the protection of cultural heritage in peacekeeping operations, organized in the margin of the fifth United Nations Chiefs of Police Summit, the summit that brings together police leaders, ministers and institutional representatives to discuss the role of police in UN missions. The program also includes UNESCO, INTERPOL, UNODC, UNOCT, UNICRI, the Department for Peace Operations and Carabinieri.

In war, armies, infrastructure and civilians are not affected. Religious places, archives, archaeological sites, libraries and monuments are often destroyed, often also to directly affect the memory of a community. When a armed group knocks down a mausoleum or plunders a museum is not only doing cultural damage: it can try to erase a story, intimidate a population or finance its activities by selling objects on the illegal market. In 2017 the UN Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 2347 on the destruction and trafficking of cultural heritage by terrorist groups in armed conflict contexts.

The case that has changed a lot the way he talks about it is Mali. In 2012, during the jihadist occupation of Timbuktu, mausoleums and religious places enrolled in the UNESCO World Heritage Site were attacked. In 2016 the International Criminal Court condemned Ahmad Al Faqi Al Mahdi for the crime of war linked to the attack against ten historical and religious monuments: it was one of the first cases in which the destruction of the heritage was treated as an international criminal matter and not as simple collateral damage. The UN mission in Mali, MINUSMA, was the first major example of peacekeeping operation with explicit tasks related to the protection of cultural and historical sites.

The Vespucci will then insist on mandates, traceability, databases, police cooperation, staff training. It will also try to understand how to save a cultural site during a peacekeeping mission that does not have to do exclusively that, because the priorities are already so many and often lack resources, security and reliable information. It means knowing when a plunder is only a theft and when it is part of a precise criminal design; it also means having inventories and photographs before objects disappear; it means making soldiers, cops, customs, magistrates and cultural institutions speak without waiting for the crisis to be over.

Italy brings to this discussion a special experience, not only because it has 61 sites listed in the UNESCO World Heritage List, more than any other state, but because in 1969 it established the specialized department of Carabinieri for the protection of cultural heritage. The Italian data bank of illicitly subtracted cultural assets has over 7.2 million objects catalogued and more than 1.1 million images. And this tells how Italy has very developed tools, but also a huge problem to manage.

The international part passes mainly from INTERPOL. Its database on stolen works of art contains almost 57 thousand objects and is built on certified information provided by the competent authorities; the ID-Art app allows police, customs, collectors and market operators to verify more easily if a good is stolen. UNESCO is also working on a virtual museum of subtracted objects, designed to make visible what often disappears between property passes, borders and private collections.

You can follow the meeting through the appropriate streaming link.

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Nave Amerigo Vespucci is preparing to arrive in New York on the late evening of today, 2 July. Here it will remain until July 7, and while there will be the celebrations of the 250 years of American independence, but also several meetings and events related to the promotion of Made in Italy and relations with the United States.

After the New York stop, Nave Amerigo Vespucci will continue his North American journey in the wake of the great sailing and naval gatherings. The campaign, starting from Genoa on 9 May, will last 156 days: over 12 thousand nautical miles, 13 overall stops and 8 foreign ports before returning to Italy.

The first stage after New York will be Boston, where Vespucci will take part in Sail Boston, scheduled from 11 to 16 July. The event is part of the Sail250 circuit, the gathering of great ships and military ships organized for the 250th anniversary of the United States. The fleet will touch New Orleans, Norfolk, Baltimore and New York before closing the route to Boston, where ships from more than 25 countries are expected. For the 2026 edition there are approximately 60 ships and up to 4 million visitors along the waterfront; the last edition comparable, in 2017, had an estimated economic impact in approximately 180 million dollars. The Vespucci will be one of the international sailing ships present in the port: on the site of Sail Boston is indicated as “full-rigged ship” and assigned to the Seaport Pier 5.

After Boston the route will continue towards Canada: Québec City from 23 to 27 July, where the Rendez-vous naval de Québec will be held from 23 to 26 July: from 2008 Québec occasionally hosts this gathering to show the public Canadian and international ships. The port of Quebec City also has a special value because it is located on the San Lorenzo, the great river axis that connects the Atlantic within Canada and has played a central role in the country’s commercial and military history. This will be the seventh edition. Immediately after, from 29 July to 3 August, Vespucci will stop in Montreal, the last North American port before the return crossing, with Ponta Delgada and Cadiz as intermediate stages before the definitive return to Italian waters.

After the passage into the Atlantic, the ship is expected to Cagliari from 13 to 16 September and then to Taranto from 20 to 24 September. The next stage will be Venice in the days of the Trans-Regional Seapower Symposium, the two-year forum of the Navy that since 1996 brings together delegations of foreign marine, academic world, industry and research on maritime safety issues. The last stage will be Trieste, from 8 to 12 October, during the Barcolana: it is the most participated sailing race in the world with over 2000 boats held every year in the Gulf of Trieste (the 58th edition will take place on Sunday 11 October 2026). This year, Trieste will host for the first time also the Marina Militare Nastro Rosa Veloce, the longest regatta in the Mediterranean.

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New York is preparing to become the stage of great Italian excellence. On the occasion of the strategic overseas stage of the World Tour and the Campaign in North America, aboard Nave Amerigo Vespucci will take life a prestigious series of events. From Sunday 5th to Tuesday 7th July 2026, the historic sailor symbol of Made in Italy will host meetings of the highest level that will range from the promotion of Italian wine to the international security leadership, up to an exclusive conversation ideal with the oldest sports trophy in the world.

Read the interview with the commander of Vespucci

The initiatives of Sunday 5 July: wine excellence and sea icons

The busy calendar of appointments will start on Sunday afternoon, starting at 15:00, with an important focus on the economy and agri-food culture. Veronafiere, Vinitaly and Italian Trade Agency (ITA) will officially present Vinitaly. USA. The meeting, focused on the strategic role of Italian wine in the relationship with the North American market, will bring together important Italian institutions to give space to comparison on quality, productive culture and territorial diversity, central themes of the next edition of Vinitaly. USA 2026, a reference appointment for those who want to tell and promote overseas excellence.

Then, at 18:30, will be held the evocative event entitled “Vespucci & America’s Cup: the two icons of the sea meet in New York”, which will see the prestigious participation of the Minister for Sport and Youth, Andrea Abodi. For the occasion, the trophy of the America’s Cup, considered to be the oldest international sports trophy, will be on board. Born in London in 1848 as an elegant silver jug, and became “America’s Cup” after the victory of yacht America in 1851, the trophy is today a true world icon of sailing, symbol of more than 170 years of challenges among the great yachts of the planet, innovation and passion for the sea. For the America’s Cup boarding is to meet another great protagonist of maritime history, in an ideal conversation between the ship that forms generations of officers and the trophy that has competed the sailing excellences of the world. The trophy will arrive in New York directly from New Zealand, whose team won the last edition and is the official holder of the title.

The appointments of Monday 6 July: solidarity and promotion of the territory

The day of Monday will open at 10:00 with a space dedicated to cooperation and the third sector, thanks to the conference organized by the Fondazione Francesca Rava. The meeting will be attended by Ambassador Giorgio Marrapodi, Permanent Representative of Italy at the United Nations in New York.

In the afternoon, at 17:00, the spotlight will move instead on the territorial valorization with the institutional meeting organized by the Municipality of Genoa, entirely dedicated to the presentation of the city to tour operators and specialized press of overseas. For the occasion will take place the mayor of Genoa, Silvia Salis.

The International Summit on Tuesday 7 July: diplomacy and security

The overseas stop will officially end on Tuesday. At 3:00 p.m., the ship will host a highly diplomatic and international event: the United Nations Chiefs of Police Summit. The event will be attended by the General Commander of the Carabinieri, General of Corps Salvatore Luongo, as official delegate of the Ministry of Interior.

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Nave Amerigo Vespucci, currently moored in Maryland in Baltimore for SAIL250 Maryland, will reach New York waters on Thursday 2 July.

It will be moored at the bottom off New Jersey until the morning of 4 July, the day when it will take part in the Sail4th250 – International Naval Review, the great parade on the Hudson River on the occasion of the 250-year celebrations of the independence of the United States.

Over fifty large sailing ships and naval units from all over the world will go up the river from the Verrazzano Bridge to the George Washington Bridge, passing in front of the Statue of Liberty. It will be one of the most significant moments of the new chapter of the Amerigo Vespucci World Tour – Campaign in North America 2026, started in Genoa on 9 May, with which the Nave Scuola della Marina Militare continues to bring in the world beauty, identity, dialogue between peoples and culture of Italy and Italians.

Announced by the Minister of Defense Guido Crosetto, the World Tour Amerigo Vespucci – Campaign in North America 2026 is an initiative of the Ministry of Defense and the Navy, produced by Defense Services S.p.A, which is part of the official program of celebrations of the 250 years of independence of the United States.

The project is developed in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, the Ministry of Culture, the Minister for Sport and Youth and the Minister for Disability.

They support the project Vespucci World Tour – Campaign in North America 2026: ITA – Italian Trade Agency, Fiera di Verona-Vinitaly e Enel.

At the end of the parade, Nave Amerigo Vespucci will remain moored until Wednesday, July 8, at Pier 86 (the dock of the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum) where he will be involved in a dense program of institutional commitments hosting on board some special events. In particular on board, during the World Tour Vespucci – Campaign in North America 2026, Italian excellence will be celebrated in the world with the presentation of the next edition of Vinitaly. USA and within the event “Vespucci & America’s Cup: the two icons of the sea meet in New York” will be welcomed and exposed exceptionally the trophy, coming from New Zealand, the America’s Cup, one of the most anticipated international sporting events that will be held in Italy next year, symbol of the great sailing. On board will also be an event organized by the city of Genoa, city from which last May 9 the Vespucci World Tour – Campaign in North America.

In the days of rest in New York are expected on board Nave Amerigo Vespucci: the Secretary of State for Defense Matteo Perego of Cremnago – on delegation of the Minister of Defense Guido Crosetto, the Minister for Sport and Young People Andrea Abodi, the Chief of State of the Navy Admiral Giuseppe Berutti Bergotto, the General Commander of the Carabinieri General of Corpo d’Arghi Luca Andreoli.

They will also be present: the President of Sport and Health Marco Mezzaroma, the CEO of America’s Cup Partnership Marzio Perrelli, the President of ITA – Italian Trade Agency Matteo Zoppas and the President of Veronafiere and Vinitaly Federico Bricolo.

For Nave Amerigo Vespucci it is the ninth visit to New York; the first in 1933, when it reached the city at the end of its first ocean crossing after leaving Gibraltar, followed by the second visit that was after the war in 1951; the most recent visits were in 2000 and 2017, confirming the solid link between Italy and the United States.

Starting from the very name of the ship, which bears that of Amerigo Vespucci, the famous navigator and Florentine explorer who first realized that the lands discovered by Christopher Columbus were part of a New World, a continent that in his honor was called America. It was then always the United States to consecrate Nave Amerigo Vespucci as “the most beautiful ship in the world” when, in 1962, in the Mediterranean Sea, the American carrier unit USS Independence asked “Who are you?” and received in response “Nave school Amerigo Vespucci, Italian Navy”, obtaining the famous greeting: “You are the most beautiful ship in the world.” Sixty years later, in 2022, crossing the American carrier USS George H. W. Bush, the radio message confirmed that fame: “You are still, after 60 years, the most beautiful ship in the world.”.

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For centuries sailing ships were the means by which Europe crossed its borders. Before the steam routes and engines, they were the sailing ships to bring men, goods, armies and knowledge from one coast to the other of the Atlantic. With ships very different from each other, but all in wood and moved by the wind thanks to their sails, Christopher Columbus arrived in the Americas in 1492, while Amerigo Vespucci contributed a few years later to understand that those lands were not a part of Asia, but a new continent for Europeans. This is why the story of the Ship Amerigo Vespucci School is not the simple story of a military ship: it is intertwined with a more ancient idea – and noble – of navigation, in which the sea was first ruled with the help of the wind.

The Amerigo Vespucci was born in fact from a choice that, already in the 1920s, could seem anachronistic. The Italian Navy, like all the marines of the world, was entering a new phase, where the ships depended more and more on the engines, the electrical apparatuses and an increasingly complex technology made of radar, sonar and various detectors. Despite this, when asked how to train the students of the Naval Academy of Livorno, the Staff decided that the first serious relationship of their students with the sea should still pass from a sailing ship. Because on a sailer, wind, currents, meteorology and onboard discipline are not abstract concepts, but things that are seen and subdued on their skin.

The decision arrived as it was finishing the operational life of the first Amerigo Vespucci, a motor cruiser and sail entered service in 1885 and adapted to school ship in 1893. For more than thirty years he had brought to the sea the students of the Royal Naval Academy, also in challenging campaigns through the Atlantic. In the middle of the 1920s, however, it was an old ship. In 1925, on the initiative of Admiral Joseph Syrianni, Minister of the Navy, he was decided to build two new school ships: Christopher Columbus and the Amerigo Vespucci. The project was entrusted to Francesco Rotundi, an officer of the Naval Genius, who designed two ships inspired by the vessels between the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

The Vespucci, however, was not a museum copy of an ancient ship. It is a modern ship with the forms of a past era. The hull was made of steel, the plates were bolted, the engine apparatus was diesel-electric, but the appearance recalled the great war sailing ships, with the black flank crossed by two white bands from which different portholes and reminiscent of the battery bridges of the cannons. Christopher Columbus entered service in 1928. The Amerigo Vespucci was set on 12 May 1930 in the Royal Naval Shipyard of Castellammare di Stabia, launched on 22 February 1931 and delivered to the Royal Navy a few months later. On 4 July of the same year he left for the first training campaign in Northern Europe, under the command of Augustus Radicati of Marmorito, who had also been the last commander of the previous Vespucci.

Il Vespucci nel porto di Brindisi nel 1943

The name chosen for the ship refers to a story often very simplified: Amerigo Vespucci did not “discover America” in the sense that it is said in school. His role was another: after the trips beyond the Atlantic he understood, and he helped to make European scholars understand that those lands were not the eastern end of Asia, as Columbus had thought. They were a different continent. The name chosen for the ship also refers to the second part of the life of Amerigo Vespucci, less told but more useful to understand why it became a symbol of navigation. After travelling beyond the Atlantic, Vespucci returned to Seville and in 1505 he obtained the Castilian citizenship. Three years later he was appointed Piloto mayor of the Casa de Contratación, the office that in Seville controlled trade and shipments to American lands. His task changed: he was no longer just traveling, but forming the commanders, controlling the navigation tools and helping to redesign the official map of the new routes and coasts of the continent he had discovered.

Amerigo Vespucci died on 22 February 1512 and many still today credit him, as well as as as the one who discovered America as said before, even as the one who gave the name to America. But it was not his choice: in 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller proposed to call “America”, by the name of Vespucci, that newly discovered continent. And if today the most important and prestigious Italian school ship bears that name, it owes it to a man tied not only to navigation, but also to the construction of a new image of the world.

Even today the Vespucci works because it obliges those who climb on board to learn the sea. It is a 101-metre-long bompress ship, has three trees plus the bompress, 24 sails for over 2,600 square meters of sail surface and tens of kilometers of cables necessary to maneuver them. The crew consists of military with very different tasks, from navigation to machine, from health to logistics, but during the education campaigns the ship fills with pupils. It is then that complete sailing becomes really possible: they serve people on trees, people at maneuvers, clear orders, coordinated times. The training is not only about the sender or the nomenclature of the sails, but the teamwork to allow the ship to work.

The history of Vespucci is also the story of a survival. His twin, Christopher Columbus, had a very different fate: after World War II, he was ceded to the Soviet Union as compensation for war, renamed Dunay and employed in the Black Sea, before being removed in the 1960s after a fire. The Vespucci instead remained in service and continued to do what it had been built for, with interruptions due to war and extraordinary works. Over time it has been updated, restored, adapted to the new needs of the Navy, but never lose its main function.

This continuity explains why Vespucci has become something more than a school ship. He campaigned in the Mediterranean, North Europe, Atlantic, North America and South America; between 2002 and 2003 he made a circumnavigation of the globe, and between 2023 and 2025 he returned to make a long world tour. And then there is the most famous definition, “the most beautiful ship in the world”, born from a greeting attributed to the American carrier USS Independence in 1962. It is a phrase that almost everyone knows and has moved in many, but the Vespucci is not important because it is beautiful: it is important because it embodies the symbol of “Italianity” in the world, and it is an example of attachment to traditions, of craftsmanship of excellence and of refinement and elegance typically Italian.

Today this story has returned to North America with the “World Tour Vespucci – Campaign in North America 2026”, started from Genoa and also included in the celebrations for the 250 years of Independence of the United States. The “World Tour Vespucci – Campaign in North America 2026” is an initiative of the Ministry of Defense and Navy produced by Defense Services S.p.A. The project is developed in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, the Ministry of Enterprises and Made in Italy, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry, the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Tourism, the Minister for Sport and Youth and the Minister for Disability. In this sense the Vespucci continues to do two works together: he trains the official students and, when he enters the port, becomes a form of Italian diplomacy abroad.

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There are ships crossing the sea and ships crossing the imagination of a country. Ship Amerigo Vespucci belongs to this second category. Launched in 1931, Marina Militare’s school ship, Vespucci continues to form generations of officers and, at the same time, to represent Italy in the ports of the world.

The North America Campaign 2026 brings the ship to the United States in a year of strong symbolic value: the 250th anniversary of American Independence. The stages of New York and Boston are particularly important. On the one hand, New York, with the arrival on July 4th; on the other, Boston, a city linked to the origins of American history and the Boston Tea Party, where the presence of Vespucci will also be included in the context of Sail Boston.

For the Navy, it’s a training mission. For Italy it is also naval diplomacy, cultural presence and meeting with Italian and Italian-American communities. For those who live Italy from afar, Vespucci is not only a ship: it is a recognizable, concrete symbol, able to hold together sea, formation, memory and identity.

Let’s talk about it with Captain Nicasio Falica, Commander of Nave Amerigo Vespucci.

Commander Falica, Vespucci arrives in the United States in the year of the 250th anniversary of American Independence. With what spirit do you face a campaign that combines formation, naval presence and representation of Italy in such a significant anniversary for the United States?

We face this campaign with the spirit that has always been the ship of Amerigo Vespucci and his crew, for almost a century; that spirit in which the importance of putting staff training at the center of the organization, together with the equally traditional and institutional task of naval diplomacy, today leads us to celebrate, together with many other nations, the 25th anniversary of American independence (1776-2026). The ship will participate, in 3 different ports – Baltimore, New York, Boston – to the “SAIL4th250”, an international parade of major sailing ships, to which will take part more than 30 Countries and to which Italy was invited by the United States already in 2021.

This year, as announced in September 2025 by the Minister of Defense Guido Crosetto at the closing press conference of the Vespucci World Tour 2023-2025, the campaign is framed as “World Tour Amerigo Vespucci – Campaign in North America 2026”, an initiative of the Ministry of Defense and Navy produced by Defense Services S.p.A. (the company in house of the Ministry of Defense that values in a dual key the assets of the Dicastery) and is part in the celebrations for the 250th anniversary of the Independence of the United States. A project also developed in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, the Ministry of Culture, the Minister for Sport and Youth and the Minister for Disability.

New York will be one of the central stages of the North American Campaign, from 4 to 8 July, on the days of American celebrations. In a city that is together entrance door, global symbolic capital and great international stage, which image of Italy can offer Vespucci?

Nave Amerigo Vespucci, which we could assimilate to a real traveling embassy on the sea, is first and foremost able to bring with pride the value culture of the Navy and our Country, made of those values that represent our national and maritime identity. In these terms, New York is definitely a privileged space to promote, through the presence of Vespucci, the image of Italy as a reliable, competent country and bearer of shared values.

After New York, Vespucci will stop in Boston from 11 to 14 July, a city symbol of American origins, where the Boston Tea Party marked one of the decisive steps towards the independence of the United States. In the context of Sail Boston, what does Vespucci mean to take part in a frame so linked to the history of the great sailors, the sea and freedom, while at the same time meeting an Italian and Italian-American community deeply rooted?

I believe that the Vespucci, the longest unit of the Navy, encloses in a single platform, indeed in a single soul – made of women and men who daily work on board with passion – every element you mentioned and that the traditional frame of Boston offers us.

Love and respect for the sea, the marine tradition on the groove of what is transmitted, from generation to generation, starting from the great sailing ships, the passion for sailing and the commitment to freedom of navigation on the seas are values deeply embodied in the spirit and culture of the Navy and interiorized, authentically, aboard the ship Amerigo Vespucci. With these premises, we eagerly await Boston’s stop, with the incoming naval parade and the great opportunity to meet the Italian-American community of the city.

The ship is admired for its beauty, but remains first of all a school ship. What does a young official student learn today on board the Vespucci who could hardly learn in the same way elsewhere?

On board the Vespucci the young students learn, first of all, to confront themselves: with their limits, their choice of life, their ability to adapt and to make team, with their inclination to the spirit of service; and they do it in a very close relationship with the natural element, made of sea and wind: a dimension hardly replicable on a different platform. Since 1931, every generation of Marina Officers has received the baptism of the sea here, on board this school ship, where every element, from the hemp of the peaks used to maneuver, the sails in holona canvas, the wood of the blanket and the marine equipment speaks of tradition and transmission of skills, experience, responsibility.

In an era dominated by technology, digital navigation and complex systems, why does it still make sense to form the officers even on a sailing ship, where do they count wind, maneuver, discipline, individual responsibility and crew work?

Because I think innovation can not go through tradition, an element that we believe is essential and fundamental in the field of training and valorisation of our maritime identity. The Navy is avant-garde in many sectors and we continue to study and invest in order to innovate more and more, without forgetting our roots and the art of those who first crossed the sea. In summary, yes innovation, but without sacrificing tradition. To make a very simple example, even on board the Vespucci are installed modern electronic navigation systems, rather than satellite communication, but nevertheless in navigation, after sunset, when far from the lights of the coast, the students still carry the “astronomy observances”, that is, determine the position of the ship recognizing and measuring the height of the stars on the horizon, just like our ancestors navigators. And then on board the Vespucci, measuring with maneuvers to the sails and many other manual activities, the students understand and interiorize the great value of the human factor and, above all, understand how important it is to make a team and how “to be an Equipaggio” can represent the amp factor of the ability and skills of the individual. They understand, because they read it every day under the master tree, that “Not who begins but what perseveres”, because the sea and the wind do not make discounts and determination and perseverance always pay off every effort.

The Vespucci brings with it a strong emotional heritage: many Italians feel it “appropriate”, even without ever getting on board. How do you live, as Commander, the responsibility to lead not only a military unit, but a national symbol recognized in the world?

I think not “many”, but “all” the Italians must feel their own. This is the spirit with which I approached the ship Amerigo Vespucci from the first day of command and is the feeling with which I and my crew welcome every compatriot on board. I like to say that the Vespucci is not only Marina, it is not only Defense, but it is Italy. I believe it! I would like to take each of the 60 million Italians home, to which I would add the additional 7 million residents abroad, starting from those who have not so far had the opportunity. To give you an idea, when we are abroad we like to tell our compatriots who go up on board “Welcome on board, welcome back home!”.

During the North American Campaign, Vespucci will meet institutions, citizens, students, families and Italian communities and Italian-discipients in different cities. Looking above all at the youngest, what can a ship like this of Italy today and the relationship between roots, identity and future?

It can convey respect, love and attachment to our nation, institutions and our traditions.

He can still teach that the will, determination, dedication and passion for what we choose and what we do, combined with discipline and spirit of service, always repay and are a source of great satisfaction, personal and professional. Some values, embodied on this ship, are indispensable and, I think, are part of the genetic patrimony of Italians and, as such, do not have age and do not lose themselves with generational changes.

Commander, let’s end with a more personal question. When he entered the Navy, would he have imagined a day to command ship Amerigo Vespucci? And what would you say today to the young officer who was then, as well as to the boys and girls who enter today in the Navy looking at this ship as a symbol and a school of life?

When I entered the Navy, from the Official Student at the Naval Academy, I saw so far and ambitious the goal of the end of the first year of studies and the much-needed boarding from student to ship Vespucci for the 1998 Training Campaign. Almost 30 years have passed, I remember very well the 99 days of that campaign in the Mediterranean. I remember reading so many times, on the traditional brass plate, the names of the Commandants who had succeeded since 1931; but the thought that at a distance of years I would have had this honor, no, although ambitious, I was perhaps too young to look so far beyond the horizon. I can say, however, that when I heard about it, I lived it with the same enthusiasm of the day when I first set foot on the deck, with the pupil uniform, in the distant 1998.

To the young officers of today I say the same things I repeat from my entrance to the Navy, as very personal:

“You have chosen the most beautiful profession in the world, able to combine competence, responsibility, passion and adventure, in a simply extraordinary environment like the sea, and inserted into a formidable team of people who have enthusiastically made your own choice, which responds to the name of EQUIPAGGIO. I say that the goal, the goal, whatever it is, is within the reach of anyone who believes and shows dedication, commitment, passion and perseverance, just as Vespucci ship teaches us. Every goal passes by commitment and sacrifice, distrusted by shortcuts. There is no lift to climb on the slopes of the Vespucci, there is no joystick to manoeuvre the sails without sweat. This allows us to understand, appreciate and value every effort and sacrifice. Those who choose this profession, know that there will be hard times, there will be departures and people greeted in the dock; but, at the same time, there will be satisfactions and sensations difficult to describe and there will be reentries and hugs, made of human warmth and emotion. You are at the beginning of a unique and authentic journey, so for your future I can only say: Not those who begin, but what perseveres.”.

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Nave Amerigo Vespucci, which started on 9 May from Genoa, crossed the Atlantic Ocean and reached the eastern coast of the United States for the new chapter of the Amerigo Vespucci World Tour – Campaign in North America 2026 with which it continues to bring in the world beauty, identity, dialogue between peoples and culture of Italy and Italians.

Announced in September 2025 by the Minister of Defense Guido Crosetto, on the occasion of the press conference of the Vespucci World Tour 2023-2025, the “World Tour Amerigo Vespucci – Campaign in North America 2026”, an initiative of the Ministry of Defense and the Navy produced by Defense Services S.p.A. (the company in house of the Ministry of Defense that values in a dual key the assets of the Dicastery), is inserted in the celebrations for the 250th anniversary of the Independence of the United States. The project is developed in collaboration with: the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, the Ministry of Culture, the Minister for Sport and Youth and the Minister for Disability.

The U.S. Navy, in 2021, invited the Navy to take part in SAIL250, the global gathering of great sailors and military ships that, with stops in Baltimore (SAIL250 Maryland), New York (Sail4th 250) and Boston (Sail Boston), brings together the most important naval units in the world. In New York, on July 4, Nave Amerigo Vespucci will take part in the most important event of the celebrations, the International Naval Review 250 that will bring the most beautiful sailing ships of the world to climb up the Hudson River from the Verrazzano Bridge, passing in front of the Statue of Liberty, to the George Washington Bridge.

Ship Amerigo Vespucci has reached today the port of Baltimore, the largest and most populous city of Maryland.

After 47 days of sailing from Genoa, Nave Vespucci has obtained new primates: with the last crossing of the Atlantic it has exceeded the record of the 2.899 miles traveled with sailing, beating the record of the addestrative campaign of 1992.

The Captain of Vascello Nicasio Falica – Commander of Nave Amerigo Vespucci – chose with the crew to travel 500 more nautical miles hunting for the winds, thus extending the route with respect to the direct crossing, and thus managing to sail 12 consecutive days only sailing.

Vespucci – with the arrival in Baltimore – also reached 3,661 nautical miles, establishing the new primacy as the longest route crossed by the ship since 1952.

In Baltimore Nave Amerigo Vespucci is moored at the waterfront of Tide Point, in the area of Locust Point, along with other boats that will take part in the SAIL250 Maryland parade from 25 June to 1 July accompanied by the return of the famous acrobatic patrol of the American Navy the “Blue Angels”, at the airport Martin State (open to the public). Sunday, June 28 at 7 pm in the underboard dock will hold the concert “From Vespucci to America: A Musical Journey by internationally renowned Italian pianist Cristiana Pegoraro in homage to the celebrations of America250. The event is organized by the General Consulate of Italy in Philadelphia at the conclusion of a cycle of conferences on the Italian contribution to the American Declaration of Independence and the subsequent constituting process of the United States.

Also in Baltimore Nave Vespucci will embark students of the First Class of the Naval Academy of Livorno, for the usual training campaign, which will end in Italy with the landing in Taranto. On board, the students will live the “baptism of the sea” and will prepare to become Officials of the Navy according to the secular traditions of the Italian marine, alternating sailing activities and technical training to activities of Naval Diplomacy, within the official program of celebrations for the 250th anniversary of the Independence of the United States.

On 1 July Vespucci will leave Baltimore for New York City, the second and most important stage of the Amerigo Vespucci World Tour – Campaign in North America 2026, where on 4 July, the day on which the anniversary of American independence will take part in the Sail4th250 the biggest event, organized in the port of New York, which will see to parade over 50 heel ships and more than forty naval units in the most spectacular marit.

Nave Amerigo Vespucci is very awaited both by the great Italian-American community living in New York and not only by the Americans themselves because of the relationship that historically binds Vespucci – and Italy – to the United States: the Ship School of the Navy bears the name of Amerigo Vespucci, the famous navigator and explorer of Florence who first realized that the lands discovered by Christopher Columbus were part of a continent.

The meeting between Nave Vespucci and the USS Independence aircraft carrier unit in 1962 in the Mediterranean Sea has become famous. «Who are you?», he replied «Nave scuola Amerigo Vespucci, Marina Militare italiana», obtaining in return: «You are the most beautiful ship in the world». Sixty years later, in 2022, crossing the American carrier USS George H. W. Bush, the radio greeting confirmed that fame: «You are still, after 60 years, the most beautiful ship in the world».

In New York at the end of the Nave Vespucci parade will be moored at Pier 86 where the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum is located and will be open to the public for visits on board.

To visit Nave Amerigo Vespucci in Baltimore, New York and Boston there are no reservations required, in accordance with the organizational rules of Sail250, just show up directly on the spot. Access will be allowed on the basis of the maximum capacity of the ship and according to the organizational arrangements provided for each port. All visitor information is available on www.tourvespucci.it and on the official sites of Sail250Maryland, Sail4th240 and SailBoston.

After the New York celebrations Nave Vespucci will take a course to Boston where from 11 to 16 July he will take part in Sail Boston and then continue for Canada where he will be the protagonist of the Rendez‐vous naval de Québec, a prestigious international gathering of ships hosted by the port of Québec City from 23 to 26 July 2026 and to follow from 29 July to 3 August, before a new ocean crossing, will stop in Montreal.

On his return to Italy Nave Amerigo Vespucci will stop in Cagliari, in Taranto, in Venice on the occasion of the fifteenth edition of the Trans-Regional Seapower Symposium (T-RSS). The last stop will be in Trieste, on the occasion of the Barcolana, the most participated sailing race in the world with over 2000 boats held every year in the Gulf of Trieste (the 58th edition will be held on Sunday, October 11, 2026) and the arrival of the Marina Militare Nastro Rosa Veloce, the longest regatta of the Mediterranean, for the first time in Trieste.

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At the Istituto Italiano di Cultura in New York the participation of the Amerigo Vespucci at the Sail4th 250 Tall Ships Parade was a way to tell also the celebrations for the 250 years of independence of the United States. The evening, hosted on Monday, June 15 and moderated by the director of the Istituto Claudio Pagliara, has seen in the center the ship school of the Navy, that will return in fact to New York to parade in the port together with other heel ship coming from different countries.

The heel ship, which in Italian are called a high-board ship, would be the big sailboats – frigates or ships – and they owe their name to the fact that, thanks to the trees that support the sails, these ships develop above all in height. Today the heel ship are mostly ships-museo or ships-school, like the Amerigo Vespucci of the Italian Navy, but they always recall a great charm, due to their obviously historical nature and to the substantial difference with the ships of today.

In connection he intervened the commander of the Amerigo Vespucci, Captain of Vascello Nicasio Falica, who explained the sense of the journey and the role of the ship as ambassador of Italy in the world. In the hall were present Chris O’Brien, president and vice chairman of Sail4th 250, and Giosetta Capriati, president of Giosetta Consultants Inc., who remembered his personal connection with Vespucci: he had climbed on board for the first time in 1976, during the celebrations of the American Bicentenary. Fifty years later, the ship returns for another major national event in the United States.

One of the most appreciated moments was the unveiling of the model of the Amerigo Vespucci donated to the Institute by Joanna Romersa, widow of Michael B. Smith, who had assembled it starting from a Mantua kit in scale 1:84.

Sail4th 250 provides a route from the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge to the Statue of Liberty, to the Hudson and the George Washington Bridge.

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