Cultural Italy - The Regatta of the Ancient Republic Mariner

While Italy has a huge amount of historical architecture and art for you to explore and examine, a proper taste of Italy is only truly achieved by meeting the people. One way to do this is to attend one of the many festivals that take place throughout the year and one such festival is the La Regata delle Antiche Repubbliche Marinare (in English ‘The Regatta of the Ancient Republic Mariner’) that takes place in Amalfi, Campania near Napoli.

The Regatta of the Ancient Republic Mariner is one of the festivals that will occur in early June. This regatta is a boat competition between four cities and there is a great deal of honour and pride at stake. The cities involved in the competition are Genoa, Venice, Pisa and Amalfi. The competition is held in a different city each year and in 2008 it will be held in Amalfi, on June 8th.

The competition has been going on for more than 50 years and each event consists of two parts. The first part is a procession through the streets filled with many colourful costumes and boats. All the cities are represented in this procession and each tried to out do the others in the extravagance of this section of the parade.

The second part is the race itself, and it is a hard fought battle every year. Venice won in 2007, so will be looking to defend their title. Genoa hasn’t won since 2000 so are looking to regain some honour by getting a resounding victory this year. When you arrive you will be able to tell the teams apart by their colours and motifs; blue and a winged horse for Amalfi, white and the griffin for Genoa, green and St Mark's lion for Venice and red and the eagle for Pisa.

Along with this upcoming Festival, there really is so much to do and see in and around Italy, so why not try our car rental Italy options, or read one of our other car rental Italy blogs and make your holiday to Italy a more memorable one.

How to get there: Amalfi is located about 70 kms south-east of Naples and your route from the city will take you past Pompeii and many other historical sights. Don’t dally too long at these sites as you will want to make sure you get the best seats for the Regatta.

If you have been to this festival yourself why not leave some hints for our other visitors to the area below?

Comments

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  • #1
  • Posted by: Tipster
  • On: 14/05/2008 20:46:21
Sounds great! I didn't know about the Regatta.  I'll definitely have to make it a stop on my next trip.

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