There is a moment, on the evening of 5 July, in which on board Nave Amerigo Vespucci two stories long more than a century have been found close. On the one hand the most beautiful ship in the world, the Navy School Ship in the city for the two hundred and fifty years of American independence. On the other hand the trophy of the America’s Cup, the oldest international sports trophy still disputed, arrived from New Zealand and returned to New York, where everything had begun.
The event “Vespucci & America’s Cup: the two icons of the sea meet in New York”, part of the Amerigo Vespucci World Tour – Campaign in North America 2026, brought together sports, institutions and the Marina, in the presence of the Minister for Sport and the Young Andrea Abodi, of the State Secretary for Defense Matteo Perego of Cremnago, of the Chief of State Admiral of the Navy, Giuseppe.
To welcome was the commander of Vespucci, Captain of Vascello Nicasio Falica. “An exciting and long-awaited moment”, he said, recalling the honor for the school ship to welcome under their eyes the oldest trophy in the world of sailing. “A world full of values that the Navy and the defense promote and that Nave Vespucci embodies”, added, listing determination, team spirit, passion and respect for the sea, loyalty and healthy competition. Values that the ship has brought through the Atlantic, twenty-nine days of sailing almost entirely, looking south towards the circulation of the aliseans.
The meeting between the two icons was Marzio Perrelli, CEO of America’s Cup Partnership. “It is a privilege to be on board the Amerigo Vespucci, in the heart of New York, where a hundred and seventy-five years ago the history of the America’s Cup was born,” he said. “There could not be a better place, a better icon to bring together two legends, the most beautiful ship in the world with the oldest sports trophy in the world”. Perrelli retraced the trophy, when in 1851 America crossed the Atlantic and, against every pronostic, challenged and beat thirteen boats around the Isle of Wight, bringing back the cup then donated to the New York Yacht Club. From there the name, America Cup. “The future is of those who have the courage to take the wide, to go looking for the wind, to face the sea”, he said, giving appointment to the Gulf of Naples, where next year seven crews will compete to take home the cup.
Marco Mezzaroma, president of Sport and Health, explained what it means to host the America’s Cup in Italy. “It is always nice to come to New York, but it is even more beautiful to trample Italian soil, as we are doing right now on Vespucci,” he said. The competition, he remembered, will be held in Naples, and has already brought a transformation of the territory of Bagnoli, object of a great work of environmental and urban requalification. “It will be an event that will have a huge relapse, in economic terms but also social”, he explained, emphasizing that Italy, when it works seriously, can set aside political rivalries and collaborate among institutions.
Luca Andreoli, CEO of Defence Services, the company that produces the World Tour has been involved in the deepest sense of the project. Vespucci, explained, has added over the years a new skin to that of extraordinary ship and instrument of naval diplomacy, becoming a great container through which to promote the excellences of the Country. «Vespucci has accustomed us to set up initiatives that seem impossible, and that then not only are realized, but become extraordinary moments of sharing», he said, recalling the intuition from which the Tour, that of the defense minister Guido Crosetto was born. “We have a new extraordinary ambassador who will be able to tell the best of Italy in the coming years”.
To bring the voice of the Navy was Admiral Giuseppe Berutti Bergotto, Chief of Staff. “This pause has a special meaning,” he said, because it unites the celebrations for American independence and the Amerigo Vespucci 2026 World Tour, witness of the ability of Italy to present itself united in the world through culture, diplomacy and the economy of the sea. The admiral recalled a value that unites the ship and the cup, the team spirit. “Aboard a ship is the crew that does the mission, it is not the ship,” he said. “Even if we are not all champions, we must row towards the same direction.” And he announced that next year the Vespucci will be present in Naples, to accompany the America’s Cup.
The ancient link between the ship and the United States was at the heart of the words of the State Secretary of Defense, Matteo Perego of Cremnago. “Being on board the Vespucci Ship in New York makes me think of the thousands of Italians who arrived with a ship on these ports and built the history of this nation”, he said, recalling that seventeen million Americans have Italian origins. “Who knows how America would be called if there had not been Amerigo Vespucci”. The sea, he added, unites the two shores of the Atlantic in a historical phase in which the ties must be strengthened. “We bring here in America a piece of Italy today”.
The conclusions were entrusted to Andrea Abodi, Minister for Sport and Youth, who chose to start precisely from the meaning of the two hundred and fifty years that were celebrated. “We are here for a witness of friendship, for an act of love, respect and honor towards this wonderful ship,” he said. Then he focused on the three principles written in the Declaration of Independence, the right to life, the right to freedom and the search for happiness. “I think that going by sea, both with Vespucci and the America’s Cup, and a little bit all this,” he observed. “The right to life, the right to freedom that the sea represents, the search for happiness that the sea is representing.”.
Abodi spoke of the America’s Cup as an event made up of feelings before even numbers, an occasion where, as in the Olympics, Italy is at the center of the world and hosts the world. He recalled the approach, with the stages of Cagliari and Nisida, and the true sporting challenge, that of next year in Naples, where Italy will defend with Luna Rossa the victory won in Barcelona. And it closed with the image that is most close to him, that of Bagnoli. “It is the beautiful sleeping that we are awakening, a wonderful piece of Naples, neglected and abandoned, that thanks to this appointment, in a few months regarding thirty years of waiting, will resume life”.
Under the feet the most beautiful ship in the world, in front of the eyes the oldest trophy of the sail, and around an Italy that is told through the sea. For one evening, in New York, sport, history and sense of belonging have been given an appointment on board the Vespucci, with the look already facing the Gulf of Naples.
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