Porto delle Grazie: shipwrights and deep divers

The story of Porto delle Grazie (Liguria, La Spezia) is closely linked to the work of shipwrights, to period boats and the tradition of the deep-sea divers. The bay is rather deep and for this reason it is a good place for anchoring, but it is also a good shelter from the north-westerly and south-westerly winds.

Listen to the story of mr Mario Garzia, who died in 2016 at 105 years old as the oldest deep-sea diver in the world. He started to deep dive when he was 16!

Then Patrizio meets Pietro Ricci, a famous shipwright whose house is a real museum! He collected the tools of the old shipwrights and preserved all the objects that he himself used in the past. He shows us all the material for caulking and sealing, only letting us imagine how tiring these old handicraft jobs could be. Over the years mr Pietro has run different courses to teach young people his art.

Dante Alighieri in his Divine Comedy mentions the work of the shipwright. He puts the workers in hell, actually! But we can assume that was because working in the shipyard was indeed an infernal job…

⇒ Watch the full web serie “Gulf of La Spezia Slow Tour”

 

Cover pic courtesy of Davide Papalini (Wikimedia)