The Nave Scuola of the Italian Navy, The Amerigo Vespucci, was in port as part of its around the world voyage, begun in 2023, which will end in 2025 when it returns to its home port of La Spezia.
While in Darwin, it was visited by several thousand people, including many children: everyone was astonished by the glamour of what is dubbed “the most beautiful ship in the world”. This title has a charming story behind it…
While in 1962 the Vespucci, in full sail, was passing, at sea in the Mediterranean, the aircraft carrier USS Independence: the traditional maritime courtesies were exchanged, using semaphore lamps. In reply to “What ship are you?” from the Independence the Vespucci flashed back “Training Ship of the Marina Militari Italiana”. The carrier flashed back: “You are the most beautiful ship in the world”.
On this current voyage, the Vespucci has a crew of some 400, made up of actual crew and instructors, Naval Cadets and a detachment of members of the Compagnia di Sbarco San Marco,the Italian version of marines (soldiers on board ships of war). There was also a small band of Bersaglieri, who played to entertain the visitors. I learned one sad part of the Vespucci story. In 1931, she had a sister ship, the Cristoforo Colombo. At the end of the war, the Russians seized it as a reparation prize. The ship was used as a coal carrier and was eventually sunk.
For me this was a particularly emotional visit, over and above the emotions one feels in contact with an object of historical and aesthetic significance. On the 3rd October 1954, the Amerigo Vespucci docked at the Molo Audace in Trieste as part of the contingent of the Italian Armed Forces who marched into Trieste to celebrate the city’s return to Italy. Trieste had been disputed territory since the end of World War II. I remember the day vividly; it was freezing cold, a strong wind was blowing and torrential rain came in from the sea for most of the day. Everyone in Trieste was on the streets to watch the Bersaglieri parade at passo di corsa along the waterfront, just as they had in 1918 when they had disembarked from the warship Audace, and reclaimed Italy from the Austrian Empire.
My father, who had spent nine years in the Italian Navy, took me as an 8-year-old boy to visit the Amerigo Vespucci on that day. It was the happy recollection of that event that was in my mind on that Sunday in Darwin.
The Vespucci sailed the next day for Singapore, as Ambassador Paolo Crudele explained, to underline Italy’s growing interest in the South East Asian Region.
Sergio Sergi
Committee Member
Dante Aligheri Society
Canberra
