The World’s Most Beautiful Ship Has Just 6 Stops Left in 2026

The Amerigo Vespucci is the oldest ship still in service with the Italian Navy, launched in 1931, and is known worldwide as the most beautiful ship in the world because an American aircraft carrier named her that in 1962.

Right now she is docked in Ponta Delgada in the Azores. You can go aboard for free on 23, 24 and 25 August 2026, no booking needed, and after that she sails for Cadiz, Cagliari, Naples, Venice and Trieste before the tour ends on 12 October.

That is the short version. Below is the long one: what she actually is, why the Navy deliberately built a ship that looked 150 years out of date, the six stories that made her a legend, and the practical part almost nobody publishes, which is where she will be for the rest of 2026 and exactly how to get on board.

I am Italian, and the Vespucci is one of those things every Italian grows up half-knowing about without ever learning the details. So I checked them against the Navy’s own records, because much of what circulates about this ship online is wrong.

If you are planning a last-minute trip to one of the next stops where you can still visit the ship, I recommend using Booking.com to prebook your stay.

This post may contain affiliate links. If you purchase through them, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thanks for supporting my small business.

Key Takeaways

• What she is: the oldest ship still in service with the Italian Navy, launched 22 February 1931, still training cadets today
• Where she is now: Ponta Delgada, São Miguel, Azores, 22 to 26 August 2026
• Remaining 2026 stops: Cadiz, Cagliari, Naples, Venice, Trieste, finishing 12 October
• Cost to visit: free, and European stops need no booking
• Size: 101 m long, 26 canvas sails, around 30 km of rope
• The catch: no open shoes, no heels, no pushchairs on board, and wheelchair access generally cannot be guaranteed

If you are planning the trip around her Azores stop rather than just reading about the ship, start with my guides to things to do in São Miguel, how to get to the Azores and renting a car in Ponta Delgada.

Where Is the Amerigo Vespucci Right Now? Full 2026 Schedule

As of 22 August 2026, the Amerigo Vespucci is docked in the port of Ponta Delgada on São Miguel in the Azores. She arrived on 22 August and leaves on 26 August, then sails for Cadiz in Spain.

This is the second-to-last foreign stop of her 2026 North America Campaign. She left Genoa on 9 May for a 156-day itinerary covering 12,151 nautical miles and 13 ports, eight of them outside Italy. She crossed to Baltimore in late June, took part in the 4 July Parade of Sail in New York Harbor for the American 250th, then Boston, then up the St Lawrence to Québec City, where more than 10,000 people came aboard at Quai 22, and on to Montréal.

Here is the rest of her 2026 schedule. The dates come from the Italian Navy’s official tour site and are described there as indicative, so confirm before you build a trip around one.

Two of those stops are tied to events rather than being simple port calls. In Venice, she is there for the 15th Trans-Regional Seapower Symposium at the Navy Arsenal on 6 and 7 October. In Trieste she takes part in the 58th Barcolana on 11 October, the largest sailing regatta in the world, which pulls more than 2,000 boats into the gulf. If you want to see the Amerigo Vespucci under sail rather than tied to a quay, Trieste in October is the one to pick.

You can track her live position by AIS at any time. Her MMSI is 247999000, and the Navy links to VesselFinder directly from the tour site.

How to Visit the Amerigo Vespucci in Ponta Delgada

Visiting the Amerigo Vespucci is free, and no booking is required at her European stops. You turn up at the port of Ponta Delgada during the published hours and join the queue. Access depends on the ship’s maximum capacity, so places are limited and it is genuinely first come, first served.

Amerigo Vespucci visiting hours in Ponta Delgada

• 23 August 2026: 14:00 to 18:30, last admission 18:00
• 24 August 2026: 11:00 to 17:30, last admission 17:00
• 25 August 2026: 11:00 to 17:30, last admission 17:00

She docks on the 22nd and leaves on the 26th, but public visits only run on those three middle days. Tours are not guided. You walk a set route, and crew members answer questions along the way.

Access rules that will actually turn you away

• Closed, comfortable footwear only. Open shoes and heels are not permitted, and this is enforced
• Minors must be accompanied by an adult
• Pushchairs and prams cannot come on board, though you can leave them on the quay
• No animals, except small dogs that you carry
• Wheelchair access generally cannot be guaranteed. The ship was designed in an era with no accessibility standards, and architectural barriers make ramps impossible. Individual cases are assessed on site

The port is a short walk from the center of Ponta Delgada, so you do not need a car for the ship itself. You will want one for the rest of São Miguel. For accommodation, I search and compare on Booking.com, and August fills up fast on the island.

What Is the Amerigo Vespucci?

The Amerigo Vespucci is a full-rigged sailing training ship of the Italian Navy, named after the Florentine navigator whose name ended up on two continents. Her home port is La Spezia. Launched in 1931, she has trained officer cadets from the Naval Academy in Livorno almost every year since, making her the oldest ship still in service with the Italian Navy.

She is not a museum piece, and she is not a replica. She is a commissioned naval vessel that happens to be 95 years old, and she still does the job she was built for.

Why the Amerigo Vespucci Was Designed to Look 150 Years Out of Date

In 1925, the Regia Marina needed to replace its training ships, and instead of building something modern, it went deliberately backward. Lieutenant Colonel Francesco Rotundi of the Navy Engineering Corps drew two vessels in the style of a late 18th-century 74-gun ship of the line.

That is why she looks the way she does. The black hull with two white stripes is a direct reference to the two gun decks of the ships she imitates, though the ports are false and she carries only two small saluting guns forward of the mainmast. The stern is covered in gilded carvings, the main deck is teak that must be replaced roughly every three years, and a life-size gilded bronze figurehead of Vespucci himself leans out from the bow.

Underneath the costume, she is a steel ship. The hull is riveted plate, double-riveted in places, which is largely why most of it is still original after nine decades. She was built at the Royal Shipyard of Castellammare di Stabia near Naples, launched on 22 February 1931, delivered to the Navy on 26 May and commissioned as a training ship on 6 June. Her first cruise took her through Northern Europe that July, and on 15 October 1931 she received her Battle Flag in Genoa. She still carries it.

Amerigo Vespucci Specifications

These are mostly the Italian Navy’s own published figures. Two notes on accuracy, because almost every article about this ship copies numbers without checking them. The Navy’s page lists her beam as 28 m, which cannot be right for a hull of these proportions; the figure used everywhere else, and the one I have used below, is 15.5 m. Mast heights and sail area also vary between sources, because they are measured from different reference points and the rig has been reworked over the decades.

Look at those two speed figures again, because they tell you everything about what she was built for. She is faster under canvas than under power. Every other ship in the fleet is the other way round.

Life on Board: Almost Nothing Is Automated

The rig runs on roughly 30 kilometers of rope, all of it traditional hemp apart from the mooring lines, which are synthetic only because ports insist on it. The 26 sails are canvas. Apart from the anchor windlass and the hydraulic steering gear, the work is done by hand, which means every maneuver needs dozens of people pulling in coordination.

The logic behind this is quietly ruthless. Before a cadet is trusted with a warship full of screens and systems, they learn what it costs to move a hull using nothing but canvas, rope and the person standing next to them. You cannot fake your way through setting a topsail in a rising wind.

The permanent crew is 264: 15 officers, 30 petty officers, 34 sergeants and 185 non-commissioned and enlisted personnel, split across operations, seamanship, ship systems, logistics, deck and medical. When the cadets from the Naval Academy in Livorno come aboard for a training cruise, the total climbs to around 400. She also takes students from the Morosini Naval School and young sailors from Italian sailing associations. Since 1931 she has completed 87 training cruises, each averaging about three months.

She Had a Twin, and the Twin Did Not Make It

Rotundi drew two ships, not one. The first, laid down at Castellammare on 15 April 1926 as Patria, was launched on 4 April 1928 as the Cristoforo Colombo and entered service that July, three years ahead of her sister.

She served as an Italian training ship until 1943 and came through the war intact, moored at Brindisi after the armistice. Then the 1947 Paris Peace Treaty assigned her to the Soviet Union as war reparations, alongside the battleship Giulio Cesare and a list of other Italian ships. In February 1949 she left Italy for the last time. She reached Odessa on 2 March, the Italian flag came down on the quay, and she was renamed Dunay, the Danube, and repainted grey.

The Soviets did not really want a square rigger. Their cadets were not trained in sail. She was used sporadically until 1959, dismasted in 1961 to avoid the cost of maintaining her rig, and put to work carrying timber. In 1963 a fire destroyed the cargo and the hull. She sat in Odessa as a wreck for eight more years and was finally scrapped in Leningrad in 1971.

Two ships, same drawings, same shipyard. One was cut up for scrap in a Leningrad yard, a long way from the bay near Naples where she was built. The other is in the Azores this week with a queue on the quay.

Amerigo Vespucci History: The Stories That Made Her a Legend

1943: She survived the war

After the armistice of 8 September 1943, the Vespucci sat out the aftermath in the port of Brindisi. She came through the war essentially intact, which very few Italian ships did.

1954: Trieste

She was in Trieste for the ceremonies marking the city’s return to Italy. Seventy-two years later, she is going back to the same city to close her 2026 campaign, which is not an accident.

1960: she carried the Olympic flame

For the Rome Games, the Vespucci carried the Olympic torch from Piraeus to Syracuse. Fifteen years after the war, Greece handed Italy the fire, and Italy sent a sailing ship to collect it.

1962: how she became the most beautiful ship in the world

In the Mediterranean, the American aircraft carrier USS Independence flashed her with a light signal asking who she was. The answer came back: training ship Amerigo Vespucci, Italian Navy. The reply was, you are the most beautiful ship in the world. In some Italian accounts, the carrier also cut her engines and sounded three blasts in salute.

Sixty years later, on 1 September 2022, the USS George H.W. Bush sailed alongside her and deliberately recreated the exchange. The Vespucci identified herself as the senior national vessel on active duty. The carrier signaled that after sixty years nothing had changed.

14 May 1965: Straulino takes her through the canal at Taranto

This is my favorite, and it is the one most people get slightly wrong.

Her commander from November 1964 to October 1965 was Agostino Straulino, an Olympic gold medallist in sailing from the 1952 Helsinki Games. On 14 May 1965, a hard northerly was blowing straight down the exit from the Mar Piccolo at Taranto. Straulino asked for the swing bridge to be opened, aligned the ship, set eight sails, stopped the engine and took her out through the navigable canal under sail alone.

The canal is roughly 600 meters long and 60 meters wide. She is 101 meters long and 15.56 meters at the beam, so the hull had room. The yards did not have room, though, and they passed close enough to the banks that the whole city came out to watch. She logged 14.6 knots on the way through, which still stands as her speed record. The story goes that Straulino received two letters from the Admiralty afterward, one commending the maneuver and one giving him ten days under arrest for breaking regulations. That last part is repeated everywhere in Italian sailing writing and nowhere in an official document, so treat it as the legend it probably is.

On 22 August 2020, Captain Gianfranco Bacchi repeated the passage with 106 cadets aboard, 55 years after Straulino. That is the same calendar date, six years earlier, on which she tied up in Ponta Delgada this week.

1966 and 2002

Rainier III and Grace Kelly came aboard in 1966. Between 2002 and 2003 she sailed around the world, spending several months in New Zealand for the America’s Cup.

The Amerigo Vespucci World Tour 2023 to 2025

Her most recent circumnavigation ran for 24 months and covered five continents, 33 countries and 53 ports. For the first time, she traveled with the Villaggio Italia, a pop-up exhibition of Italian food, craft, design and industry set up alongside her at the major stops. Los Angeles, Tokyo, Singapore, Mumbai, Doha, Abu Dhabi. The tour closed on 10 June 2025 with the Day of the Italian Navy, in the presence of the President of the Republic.

She has also worked on marine and environmental protection for over thirty years, with UNICEF, WWF and Marevivo.

Ten months in dry dock

After a voyage that long, she needed rebuilding. She spent ten months at the Naval Arsenal of La Spezia, which has always handled her maintenance, including four months in dry dock. The work included re-riveting the hull plates, completely dismantling the rudder, major work on the foremast and bowsprit, and routine maintenance on the main and mizzen masts.

Two of her four cutters and the stern whaleboat were rebuilt from scratch. The whaleboat that came off is now in the Naval History Museum in Venice. The cadet accommodation was also enlarged to take more trainees on future courses, which suggests the Navy isn’t planning to retire her any time soon.

How to Photograph the Amerigo Vespucci

Tied up at a quay, she is a hard subject, because 101 meters of ship in a working port means you cannot back up far enough to fit her in without a wide lens and a lot of cluttered foreground. The rig is the picture, not the hull. Shoot up through the masts from the deck with something wide, and shoot the detail work: the gilded stern carvings, the belaying pins, the coiled hemp, the figurehead from below at the bow.

From across the harbor, a short telephoto compresses the three masts into each other and makes her read as a wall of rigging, which is the shot most people remember. Late afternoon light warms the gold; midday flattens the black hull into a shape with no detail in it. If she is leaving under sail, get to the harbor entrance rather than the quay, and get there early.

Amerigo Vespucci FAQ

How old is the Amerigo Vespucci?

She was launched on 22 February 1931, which makes her 95 in 2026. She is the oldest ship still in commission with the Italian Navy.

Can you go on board the Amerigo Vespucci?

Yes, and it is free. At most European stops, you just turn up during the published hours with no booking. The 2026 North American stops in Baltimore, New York, Boston, Québec City and Montréal required advance online booking through the official tour site, and slots went fast. Visits are self-guided along a set route, with crew on hand to answer questions.

Why is the Amerigo Vespucci called the most beautiful ship in the world?

Because an American aircraft carrier said so and it stuck. The USS Independence signaled it to her in the Mediterranean in 1962, and the USS George H.W. Bush repeated it in 2022 on the sixtieth anniversary. The Italian Navy has used the phrase as her informal title ever since.

Is the Amerigo Vespucci a real working ship or a museum piece?

A real one. She is a commissioned vessel of the Italian Navy and still runs training cruises for Naval Academy cadets, 87 of them since 1931. She had a full structural refit in 2025 and 2026, including four months in dry dock, and her cadet accommodation was enlarged for future courses.

What does the Amerigo Vespucci motto mean?

Non chi comincia ma quel che persevera translates as not he who begins, but he who perseveres. It is attributed to Leonardo da Vinci and it is the least glamorous motto in any navy, which is exactly why it fits her.

Where can I see the Amerigo Vespucci in 2026?

Ponta Delgada until 26 August, Cadiz 3 to 6 September, then Cagliari, Naples, Venice and Trieste through to 12 October. After Trieste, she goes home, and the Navy will publish the 2027 program on the official tour site.

Is the Amerigo Vespucci Worth Going Out of Your Way For?

If you are already in the port city, absolutely. It is free, it takes under an hour, and there is no other way to walk the deck of a working 1931 square rigger.

If you are thinking of building a trip around her, I would pick Trieste on 11 October over any of the quayside visits. Tied up, she is a beautiful object. Under sail in the middle of 2,000 boats at the Barcolana, she is the thing she was actually built to be, and that is worth more than queuing to walk her deck.

Ninety-five years of showing up, and the whole argument for her is in the motto. Not the one who starts.

You might also find this useful

• 19+ things to do in São Miguel, Azores, if you are staying on after the ship leaves
• The best time to visit the Azores, because August is not automatically the answer
• Renting a car in Ponta Delgada, which you will need for everything outside the city
• São Miguel photography, my own shots and where I took them
• 31 things to know before traveling to Italy, if the ship has sent you down an Italian rabbit hole