It is official: Naples will be the race course for the 38th edition of the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup in 2027. For Italy, this is the first historic opportunity to host the most iconic sporting event in international sailing. A victory that nothing can be taken for granted and that consecrates the Neapolitan city as a protagonist on the global scene.
The announcement arrived through official channels and is the result of a strategic collaboration between the Italian government, Team New Zealand and the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron. The decision marks an epoch-making step for a country that has always identified itself as a “land of poets, saints and navigators”.
The choice of institutions, from the Government to the Municipality of Naples, via the Ministry of Sport and the Ministry of Economy, in synergy with the Louis Vuitton Cup and the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup Match, is a prestigious recognition of Italian sailing passion and expertise. It is the confirmation of Naples as a cultural and sporting capital, capable of hosting, narrating and enhancing events of global importance.
In a singular interweaving of symbols and destiny, Naples has just recently welcomed, at the end of its two-year-long world tour, the Amerigo Vespucci, universally known as ‘the most beautiful ship in the world’. A coincidence that smells of redemption and gratitude for a city that has always dreamed of this moment. The Amerigo Vespucci, in fact, saw the light in Naples, in the historic shipyard of Castellammare di Stabia, at the time the Royal Bourbon Shipyard, now part of the Fincantieri group. A further testimony to the great Italian naval tradition and know-how.
Not only an extraordinary opportunity for direct and indirect investment to restore Naples to its role as an international stage, but also a concrete opportunity to rethink and redesign the city, or at least part of it.
The regatta course will ideally embrace Posillipo, ranging from Castel dell’Ovo, which is just in the last few months being returned to its splendour thanks to a major restoration, to the island of Nisida and continuing along the coastline towards Bagnoli.
This is a symbolic area, where the Phlegraean Fields begin, and where it appears increasingly urgent to intervene to remedy the structural and environmental fragilities of an area that has been waiting too long for redemption. In Bagnoli, in particular, there is now a real opportunity to restore dignity and function to a tormented area, that of the former Italsider industrial complex, which together with the surrounding coastline awaits a regeneration project capable of finally meeting the expectations of the city and its citizens.
A privileged place to follow the races could be, depending on the wind, the iconic Pozzuoli Aeronautical Academy, which dominates the gulf from above. A place dear not only to Neapolitans but also to Italian astronauts, who trained and prepared for their careers first as pilots and then as space explorers.
And since the economy is also transforming, it would be fascinating to imagine that the America’s Cup teams might choose to set up part of their operative bases in a strategic area of the port of Naples. Perhaps in the historic oil area to the east, today in search of a new identity, which could thus be reborn thanks to targeted redevelopment investments.
A vision that would fit perfectly with the growth already underway in the cruise sector and which, with new settlements and accommodation facilities, could surprise and attract even the most demanding tourist flows, consolidating Naples as one of the world’s sea capitals.
And I, as a passionate explorer of the often hidden wonders that our territory has to offer, have always dreamed of the rebirth of the Palazzo dell’Immacolatella station, also known as Immacolatella Vecchia. An authentic Neapolitan Baroque jewel, built around 1740 at the behest of Charles of Bourbon and designed by architect Domenico Antonio Vaccaro.
Originally, the building was the first landing and reception point in the port of Naples, the seat of the Deputazione della Salute, the authority that controlled the health of ships and crews from all over the world.
Today, this place full of history and significance, recently restored, could become the protagonist of a new season: rediscovered, enhanced and re-functionalised as an ideal and real setting for international events such as the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup and, who knows, perhaps tomorrow as an accelerator for new adventures and global enterprises.
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