Log book

Patrizio – without hiding a certain enthusiasm – visits il Galata, the Museum of the Sea in the dock area of Genoa harbour accompanied by the manager Pierangelo Campodonico. Il Galata is in a symbolic place, precisely where once there were the old shipyards where galleons were built, and it is the biggest Italian maritime museum today. More than a museum it is a journey through time, from the epoch of the galleons down to submersibles, through the epochs of the pirates, the sailing boats, the migrations ... You can amuse yourself while learning, or learn having a good time, also with a gaze turned towards the future with the big map – a project of how Renzo Piano imagines the future port of Genoa!

Exploring il Galata one can “disguise” as a Genoese merchant, climb on a nineteenth-century brig, or see the precise and philological reconstruction of a sixteenth-century galleon. Then the whole third floor is devoted to migrations, both the emigrations of Italians towards the Americas, and the immigrations of North Africans towards Italy. And here a “psycho-dramatic” pathway starts in which you can get into the shoes of an Italian emigrant in the early twentieth century, who – passport in hand – embarks on the Steamboat “Torino” for North America! Then in 2012 there will also be completed the whole area of the museum devoted to the reconstruction of the landing places of our emigrants: Buenos Aires and La Boca, New York and Ellis Island, Brazil. And as the ideological conclusion of the pathway, among other things, there will also be a scow taken at Lampedusa bearing witness to the new migrants that come to our coasts from North Africa.

The submersible Nazario Sauro

After the virtual walk through the Galata Museum, it is time for Patrizio to get into a true submarine: the Nazario Sauro! Pierangelo Campodonico, the manager of the museum, explains that this is not a reconstruction, but is a real submersible that until 2002 went around the Mediterranean. It experienced the last phases of the Cold War and constituted one of the main units of the Italian submarine fleet.

Entering a submarine, or rather going down into its “belly”, is a particular experience, above all if you identify a bit with the crew that inside it could even spend more than a month without ever seeing sunlight. The visit is very alluring, you hear recordings of the true noises of a submersible sailing and also the spaces are intact. The boilers, the control room, the bunks ... Decidedly narrow spaces, above all with a bunk-people ratio that was not equitable, with turns for sleeping too. The most cheerful part of the whole boat is the kitchen, reconstructed and fitted out just as if it were inhabited, with the table prepared and the voices in cable radio ... it seem that the cook always had to warn people when cooking garlic or onion, because the odour could alarm everyone, making them think there was a gas leak!

Patrizio is amazed by the visit, the submersible is a concentration of technology and nothing is missing: the periscope, the “song” of the sonar, the red light that was turned on to distinguish night from day ... The idea of spending weeks inside it, however, is suffocating and after a while, going out to get a breath of air becomes a real need!