Amerigo Vespucci in Tokyo for first time in 93 years

(ANSA) - ROME, AUG 25 - The Amerigo Vespucci reached the port of Tokyo in its first visit to Japan in its storied 93-year history Sunday, as part of a World Tour, which started in Genoa in July 2023 and will take it to 31 countries, reaching over 30 ports in five continents.
    In the last stretch, which was the longest of the tour, the historic sailing ship and training ship of the Italian Navy sailed to Japan from Honolulu, in the Hawaian Islands, covering 3,630 miles, and tying off in hot and muggy Tokyo afternoon amid the curiosity of many onlookers.
    "We are extremely proud to represent Italy in the world both as crew and as all the community of the Vespucci", Captain Giuseppe Lai told ANSA.
    "We are in the 22nd stage of the world tour after 14 months since we left Genoa on July 1, 2023," he stressed.
    "It's a highly anticipated stopover, the first time for the Vespucci in Tokyo and Japan.
    "We have very great expectations both to visit a different and fascinating culture and to receive a warm reception.
    "They have been intense days," added Lai, "a long voyage across the Pacific which lived up to its name with great windows of dead calm and only a little more choppy sea in Tokyo's lee.
    "The 115 cadets of the Livorno Naval Academy who boarded in Los Angeles greeted this opportunity with extremely great enthusiasm and participation".
    Awaiting the Vespucci, at 14:40, in the August sun and with the proverbial Japanese organisaton, was the Welcome Ceremony with the national anthems of the two countries played by musical bands and a gaggle of authorities and public functionaries, testifying to the ample collaboration at a diplomatic level that at the start of 2023 saw the governments of Giorgia Meloni and Prime Minister Fumio Kishida elevate bilateral relations to a strategic partnership.
    Italian Ambassador in Tokyo Gianluigi Benedetti told ANSA that "the arrival of the Vespucci sailing ship in Japan is a historic event and it follows the arrival of other Italian Navy ships, like the Cavour aircraft carrier".
    Welcoming the Navy's training ship to the port of the Japanese capital, he said "it is also a sign that has a wider value, multilateral if you will, a global strategic value.
    "Italy's confirmation to want to contribute to peace and stability in the world, ensuring the coordination in cooperation with other partners and countries of various areas, maritime safety and security and freedom of navigation, also in the Indo-Pacific, which seems very far off, but in reality is a continuation, if you will, of the Atlantic-Mediterranean Axis." Strategic connotations, but also economic and commercial attractions, together with a growing and prolific involvement at the cultural level between nations that have always had an affinity for one another.
    Hence the desire to repeat the success of setting up the Villaggio Italia in Los Angeles, a successful international exhibition that brings together national excellence, through the creativity, research and innovation of Made in Italy, sustainability projects and the Bel Paese's natural heritage.
    Until August 30, thanks to the Vespucci, the borders between Italy and Japan will be easier to cross. (ANSA).