Venezia – In the landscape of Italian training units, the training ship Giorgio Cini represents one of the most important tools for the training of personnel in the aeronaval department of the Guardia di Finanza. Not only a platform for seafaring training, but a true floating laboratory where student officers and inspectors acquire technical, operational and professional skills destined to find application in the daily activity of the Corps.
The unit, built in the early 1950s as a brigantine schooner, still maintains the charm of traditional training ships, in which the direct relationship with the sea, the wind and the maneuvers represents a fundamental element of the training path. The vessel, about 50 meters long overall and characterized by traditional rigging, allows for training activities that could hardly be replicated on board modern operational units.
Sailing navigation, cable maneuvers, ship handling, conduct at sea and life on board are in fact essential elements in the training of personnel destined to operate in the naval department of the Guardia di Finanza.
“The training ship Giorgio Cini – explains the ship’s commander, Captain Simone Nunzio Ruggeri – has been engaged in a training campaign of Naval Exercise and Seafaring Training in foreign territory for 39 Student Inspectors of the 94th Dodecanese II course specializing at the Nautical School of the Corps”.
The activity carried out on board represents only a part of a broader training path, which integrates nautical skills and specialist knowledge related to the institutional functions of the Corps.
“The specialist training offered by the Nautical School – adds the commander – concerns both the technical-nautical part and the specific legal-professional training relating to the exercise of the exclusive functions of Maritime Police and Economic-Financial Police, as well as the other functions assigned by law to the Guardia di Finanza and the aeronaval department”.
Life on board allows students to confront the typical dynamics of offshore navigation: watch shifts, route planning, maneuver management, shipboard discipline and teamwork. An activity that contributes to developing decision-making skills and crew spirit, indispensable elements for future operational employment.
The role of the aeronaval department of the Guardia di Finanza is in fact part of an increasingly complex context, in which the sea represents a strategic frontier for national security and the protection of the country’s economic interests.
“The Corps is a bastion of economic and financial security for the country, safeguarding the legal economy also at sea. Thanks to the aeronaval component – explains Captain Ruggeri –, the Guardia di Finanza can monitor coasts, ports and commercial routes, intervening rapidly in economic-financial security operations and in the protection of the national territory”.
Since 2017, the Guardia di Finanza has also played an exclusive role in the context of national maritime security. The Corps is the only Maritime Police, exercising exclusively functions of protecting order and security at sea and operating in the fight against trafficking of drugs, weapons and migrants”, concludes the commander.
In this context, the Giorgio Cini continues to represent a fundamental piece of the training chain of the Fiamme Gialle. A historic ship that, even today, transmits to future commanders and specialists of the aeronaval department not only the techniques of navigation, but also the culture of the sea and the sense of belonging to the Guardia di Finanza.
