And, no, I'm not talking about a cruise ship this time, but an actual naval ship, the Luigi Durand de la Penne, from the Marina Militare (or Italian navy). It arrived yesterday and was open to visitors today--and will be again tomorrow--in commemoration of its daring namesake's successful human torpedo attack in the early morning hours of 19 December 1941 on two British battleships in the Port of Alexandria.
The destroyer is open to the public in the morning and afternoon, with free shuttles to the ship leaving from the Riva degli Schaivoni in front of the Caserma Aristide Cornoldi (which, if one if one is walking from San Marco, is not far beyond the "Vivaldi church", aka, Santa Maria della Pietà ).
It's rather an odd sight in the bacino, and a rather dramatic one in this evening's sunset.
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| A view of the destroyer in the less theatrical light of mid-day today. |
Thanks, I wondered about this ship as I drifted past in the Number I vaporetto! I hope I can catch one of those shuttles tomorrow, to have a little look!
ReplyDeleteI hope you got to see it, Yvonne. we were planning on going Friday afternoon, as the local paper said that it would be open then, only to see out our window at about 3 pm, about 30 minutes before we planning to leave, the ship heading out of the lagoon! So I hope it was indeed at least open in them morning that day & you saw it.
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