On Saturday 8 March 2025, the Vittoriale degli Italiani hosted a special ceremony for the centenary of the arrival of the bow of the Royal Ship Puglia and its battle flag, donated to Gabriele d'Annunzio by the Royal Navy. An event which, as underlined by the Vittoriale Foundation, "It is not only a celebration of the past, but an opportunity to reaffirm the Vittoriale's vocation to be an increasingly lively cultural place, capable of surprising and renewing itself without ever betraying its own identity".
Located on the Vittoriale hill, the bow of Nave Puglia It is oriented towards the east, towards the Adriatic, at the behest of Gabriele D'Annunzio, as an everlasting memory of the Great War and its sacrifices.
The ceremony, which, on a splendid sunny day, effectively opened the spring season of the Vittoriale degli Italiani, began with a solemn and evocative flag-raising ceremony on the flagpole in Piazzetta Dalmata, accompanied by the National Anthem performed by the Fanfare of the Interregional Maritime Command North.
At the end of the touching ceremony, the political and military authorities who attended, together with the numerous guests who came, including many students and representatives of the veterans' and arms associations, were invited to reach, through the park, the deck bridge of Nave Puglia.
Preceded by the firing of eleven salutes from the on-board guns, the president of the “Il Vittoriale degli Italiani” Foundation, Giordano Bruno Guerri, and division admiral Flavio Biaggi took the floor for a speech in which they thanked the authorities and all those present, retracing the historical facts related to the ship and, through the narration of these, they honored Her and the men who shared her history and spirit.
"What matters is to do one's duty with professionalism and a spirit of sacrifice. A course that has remained unchanged, yesterday as today, for the Navy and for the entire country system. And Nave Puglia was the supreme example of this spirit and commitment" Admiral Biaggi underlined in his speech, recalling how the sense of duty and the spirit of sacrifice of the Navy and its crews have remained unchanged over time.
The speech of the Northern inter-regional maritime commander, considering the extraordinary contemporaneity of the maritime vision that D'Annunzio had both as a politician and as a sailor, continued by underlining how: “The sea is fundamental to the life, well-being and prosperity of Italy and the Navy is a fundamental element of the national maritime cluster at a global level. A great lesson that the Poet knew very well".
At the end of his speech, Admiral Biaggi also wanted to pay homage to the "Great Crew" of the Navy, represented for the occasion by the personnel of the Northern Inter-Regional Maritime Command, the students of the Francesco Morosini Naval Military School and the local command of the Port Authority: “A team, a united and close-knit crew that, in the era of global challenges, operates continuously on the seas and oceans with professionalism, a very high spirit of service and great generosity in continuity with our millenary maritime traditions and in the wake of the values inspired by our heroes of the past." At the end of the ceremony, the D'Annunzio Marinaio exhibition was inaugurated, hosted in the renovated on-board Museum. The exhibition includes naval models donated by Aimone di Savoia Aosta and a series of photographic panels curated by Rear Admiral Giosuè Allegrini.
