Barcolana Special Edition: Trieste welcomes Nave Vespucci with a grand Boat Parade

Barcolana © Barcolana / Studio Borlenghi

Trieste will be the first Italian city to welcome the training ship Amerigo Vespucci back into national waters at the conclusion of her 2023-2025 World Tour.

To celebrate this historic occasion, Barcolana is organizing a special Boat Parade on Saturday, March 1, 2025, inviting all sea lovers to participate in a spectacular maritime event.

The parade will be a non-competitive, free event open to all types of boats, from sailing boats, dinghies, and motorboats to SUPs, canoes, and kayaks. The first group, consisting of sailing boats, inflatables, and motorboats, will depart at 1:00 PM from the Barcolana starting buoy and proceed at a speed of four knots to meet Nave Vespucci and escort it towards the San Giusto Basin. The second group, including rowing boats, SUPs, and small sailing dinghies, will depart at 2:00 PM from the Old Port breakwater and conclude at the San Giorgio Basin.

Participation in the Boat Parade is free but requires registration, which is open online at specialedition.barcolana.it. From February 22 to 28, participants can also register in person at the Società Velica di Barcola e Grignano, where they will receive the official event memorabilia and a Gran Pavese flag to display during navigation. A Certificate of Participation will be issued to all registered participants.

The event will also include two special awards: one for the sports club registering the highest number of crews and another for the team that best interprets the arrival of Nave Vespucci in a creative, carnival-inspired way, as the event coincides with Carnival weekend.

Trieste marks the beginning of the Mediterranean tour of the training ship Amerigo Vespucci along the Italian coasts, touching two foreign ports, and will conclude in Genoa on June 10, 2025, on the occasion of Navy Day. The Barcolana Special Edition and the Boat Parade are organized by Barcolana in collaboration with the Ministry of Defense and Difesa Servizi SpA, the Ministry's in-house company that implements and supports all stages of the Vespucci Tour and the Villaggio Italia, and Rai, which has granted the Main Media Partnership to Barcolana Special Edition and Barcolana 57.

The "Vespucci World Tour 2023-2025" project, promoted by the Minister of Defense Guido Crosetto and supported by twelve ministries and the Presidency of the Council, saw the Ship visit major ports around the world, combining training, naval diplomacy, and the promotion of Made in Italy through the Villaggio Italia, a multi-year traveling mini-expo of Italian excellence.

For more details, visit specialedition.barcolana.it.

Information on Vespucci's full tour, ship access, and visit reservations is available at www.tourvespucci.it.