This morning, in Piazza Matteotti, the ceremony of handing over the Institute Flag to the Hydrographic Institute of the Navy, the State cartographic body and responsible for the national hydrographic service and for the production of all the official nautical documentation for safe navigation, was held.
The Honorable Undersecretary of State for Defense Matteo Perego di Cremnago, the Chief of Defense Staff Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, the Chief of Staff of the Navy Admiral Enrico Credendino and the highest civil, military, religious, regional and local.
Admiral Credendino in complimenting the director of the Hydrographic Institute and all the staff underlined that “The institute is an excellence of the Navy which has crowned the Armed Forces, Defense and the country with prestige and successes and which we have duly celebrated in this symbolic milestone of its 'first century and a half'. The hydrographic institute of the Navy is the official state body for the production of nautical documentation, a functional and indispensable service for the safety of navigation, especially in a nation like ours, surrounded by the sea with a coastal development of more than 8.000 kilometres”.
“The Institute's strategic relevance is confirmed by its multiple activities ranging from hydrography to topography, from geodesy to magnetism, from meteorology to oceanography. It is a primary function above all because of the shared national and international attention to the sea, the oceans and the seabed which are increasingly perceived as decisive from an economic, energy, cultural and environmental, security and social point of view. It is a prestigious recognition that rewards a long and glorious history of successes also recorded in international contexts " Admiral Cavo Dragone declared in his speech.
"This Genoese reality, of a city of illustrious sailors who have discovered new worlds and allowed Italy to become a maritime power of reference, is constantly updated and in step with the times, gradually passing through the era of digital services for navigation increasingly secure, above the surface, and in the cyber and underwater domains, also with the entry online of a New Major Hydro-Oceanographic Unit (NIOM). Congratulations and best wishes to the Hydrographic Institute of our Navy, and thank you for what you do for the mare nostrum and for our country" these are the words of the Undersecretary of State Perego of Cremnago who, after the religious blessing of Monsignor Marco Tasca, handed over the school flag donated by the National Association of Italian Sailors through its President, Admiral Pierluigi Rosati, in the hands by the director of the Institute, Rear Admiral Massimiliano Nannini.
After the ceremony with the swearing-in of the director of the state cartographic institution, the celebrations for the 150th anniversary of the foundation of the Marine Hydrographic Institute took place inside the Sala del Maggior Consiglio of the Palazzo Ducale.