There is a time when New York stops to watch the sea. It happened on July 4, when along the Hudson River one of the largest fleets of sailing ships ever gathered to celebrate the two hundred and fifty years of U.S. independence. In the midst of over fifty great sailing ships and naval units of the marines all over the world, to capture the looks there was Nave Amerigo Vespucci, the Nave school of the Italian Navy, known as the most beautiful ship in the world.
The parade, the Sail4th 250, took the Hudson from the Verrazzano Bridge to the George Washington Bridge, passing in front of the Statue of Liberty, in a show that united the sea, the sky and the city. For Vespucci it was the ninth visit to New York, a link with the city that lasts since 1933, when the ship first arrived at the end of its first Atlantic crossing.
The parade on the Hudson is one of the most significant moments of the new chapter of the Amerigo Vespucci World Tour – Campaign in North America 2026, starting from Genoa on 9 May. With this journey the Nave School of the Navy 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, and is part of the official program of celebrations for the two hundred and fifty years of American independence. An occasion in which Italy presented itself in New York with its most elegant symbol, in a dialogue between two countries that rooted in history, starting from the very name of the Ship, that of the Florentine navigator Amerigo Vespucci, from which America takes its name.
To tell the ship was his commander, the Captain of Vascello Nicasio Falica, who explained what it means to lead a crew of about two hundred and forty people, who in summer arrives to four hundred with the students of the Naval Academy. “It is a ship where the team spirit, the ability to work together, is really one of the values on which we reward”, he said. «As commander I feel a part of the crew. It is a ship that without the crew does not sail”.
Launched in Castellammare di Stabia on February 22, 1931, the ship has the same task for ninety-five years, the formation of military personnel, starting with the students of the Naval Academy. “Every student of the Naval Academy, therefore every officer of Marina, received his baptism of the sea here”, Falica told, recalling his, in 1998. The other task, he explained, is naval diplomacy: “We can say that it is a real floating embassy, itinerant, that brings dialogue and international cooperation everywhere”.
It is precisely in the United States that in 1962 was born the title that accompanies Vespucci. «The USS Independence, an American carrier, meets this black and white ship in veiled, does not recognize it and asks: who are you?», the commander recalled. «The answer was: ship school Amerigo Vespucci. And the counterpart, communicating to light flashes, said, “You are the most beautiful ship in the world. This is what the Americans have told us, and we are proud.”.
On the link between tradition and innovation, Falica explained that the two things go hand in hand. The ship has satellite communication systems and electronic navigation, but does not give up habits of always. “We follow the navigation with GPS, but when we are in Atlantic, away from the coasts, at sunset the students still make astronomical observations,” he told. “They recognize the stars, measure their height and, with astronomical calculations, determine the point where the ship is located”.
Of the campaign just begun, the commander remembered two moments on all. The ocean crossing, twenty-nine days and four thousand miles travelled looking for the winds of the Aliseans as the navigators of the past, and the parade on the Hudson. “The passage under the Statue of Liberty, for us, represents the symbol of a very important value to defend, that is freedom,” he said. “It is also the symbol of the United States, a country that we have come to honor.”.
In the end, for Falica, the sense of everything lies in a word. “Nave scuola means transmitting skills, responsibility, passion for what we do,” he said. If the Vespucci arrived to ninety-five years, when the average life of a ship is thirty or forty years, it is the merit of the crew. “For me he is a single crew since 1931. People have changed, but the soul and spirit take care of it every day. He who lives here because he is in love, because he has passion for this ship and for what he represents».
After the parade, Nave Amerigo Vespucci was moored at Pier 86, next to the Intrepid Museum, for a series of institutional and cultural events, before returning the sea to the next stages of his journey.
L’articolo Nicasio Falica and Vespucci, the floating embassy of Italy in New York proviene da IlNewyorkese.
