After 11 years since its last visit in 2011, the Italian Navy Training Ship Amerigo Vespucci, carrying the Italian Naval Academy 1st year midshipmen, entered the port of Valletta on Friday, where it will be moored for two days.

From the technical point of view, the Amerigo Vespucci is a sailing ship, but it is also engines-fitted. Francesco Rotundi, Lieutenant Colonel of the Naval Engineers, designed the Vespucci in the late 1920s. The ship was built in 1930 in Castellammare di Stabia, launched on 22 February  1931, and delivered to the Italian navy on 2 July of the same year.

This is the last international stop in the itinerary of the 2022 training campaign. The ship set off from Livorno on 2 July and followed a Mediterranean-Atlantic route, mooring at Palermo, Tunis, Algiers, Lisbon, Casablanca, Cadiz and Trapani. From Valletta, the ship will return to Italy, where navy midshipmen will conclude their educational journey.

The Amerigo Vespucci Training Ship has been a UNICEF Ambassador since September 2007, and it was recently awarded with the "U.N. Decade of Ocean Science" flag by UNESCO. The Vespucci will be open for visits to the general public on Saturday 27 August 2022, from 10.30am to 4.30pm.

Photo: Saviour Schembri - Horizon