News Article Release

Mids Spend Spring Break at Italian Naval Academy

March 29, 2012

By Midshipman 2nd Class Taylor Calibo

Four Naval Academy midshipmen were selected to participate in a cultural immersion trip to the Italian Naval Academy in Livorno, Italy, March 9-18.

The purpose of the trip was to provide midshipmen the opportunity to experience life as a midshipman in the Italian navy. Midshipmen 2nd Class Taylor Calibo, Hannah Mayer, Ben Putbrese and Edward Ross spent four days with the Italian midshipmen in Livorno attending engineering, navigation, English, and self-defense classes and participating in athletic activities at the institution’s sports complex.

The Naval Academy midshipmen found the English classes to be the easiest to engage in and took part in practicing conversations in English with the Italian midshipmen. They also presented a slideshow to the classes about the U.S. Naval Academy.

The Italian Naval Academy made arrangements for the U.S. students to board in the same rooms as the Italian third-year students to help facilitated cultural immersion. Some of the roommates did not speak much English at all, which led both parties to dedicating themselves to learning more of each others’ language.

The midshipmen quickly discovered that daily life at the Italian Naval Academy resembled but did not exactly match that of daily life at the U.S. Naval Academy. One feature that the U.S. midshipmen found strikingly different was the training of first-year students. They ran to and from everywhere with their fists together in front of their chest, slept in a room with rows of beds and windows open year-round, and attended formations up in the courtyard as early as 3 a.m. on a Sunday.

Another difference between the two academies was that the Italian midshipmen get commissioned as ensigns after their third year of school and then continue with their schooling for another two years.

The midshipmen traveled to other Italian cities as well, taking in sights such as the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Vatican museum and Sistine Chapel, the Duomo in Florence, and the Piazza del Campo in Siena.

The midshipmen also enjoyed sampling local cuisine such as the pasta carbonara in Rome and the pizza in Pisa as well as various Tuscan wines.

The four midshipmen agreed that this was indeed the trip of a lifetime and hope to return in the future.