The crew: “Mediterranei”
In the largest ports in the XVI century, merchants often went for a walk every day on the docks with the careful eye to the ships, looking on the decks, watching the deck gear, asking for information. It happened that, after wandering, they approached a sailing ship that would have set out shortly thereafter. They talked to some busy sailors, they asked who was the boatswain, they finally asked for the commander. It was not unusual for the commander that they invited him to drink a glass of wine in the tavern at the port, inquiring with him in detail about the trip that he was about to undertake. “A commercial trip , hmm … well, where are you leaving for? which is the crew? along which routes, how long will be the journey?” they asked. And so on. At the end of the conversation, after realizing who was the commander, the man, his life and his nautical experience, it could happen that the merchant made his offer: “I take ten karats of the expedition.” Quickly, the deal was signed, a signature and a handshake in front of a guarantor. It meant that the merchant financed the expedition because he believed, because he hoped for a return: his money plus a portion of the earnings coming from the expedition. Of course, at his own risk: was that commander really capable as they said? Would that ship have come back? Was he investing his money well? Who could know…
Progetto Mediterranea is not a commercial expedition and it doesn’t operate traditional chartering activities, it does not aim for any particular economic return except for covering its costs. However, it is organized in a similar way to those vessels of the VXI century. This expedition has goals, a boat, a route, aiming at reaching cultural, nautical, scientific, human relations objectives.
A group of people red, understood, asked for information, and they decided to be part of the expedition, financially supporting the trip, participating in many different ways through collaboration, working together in the organization and coming aboard when it’s possible.
In this way, the small group of founders has become a large group of people, dozens of journey and sea lovers, all engaged and involved, which not by chance are called “Mediterranei”. This group supports the expedition, it is an integral part of it, collaborate in the project development, and some of them make up the Committee of Rais, who drives the boat throughout the trip.
No one will receive money in return for the given support, but everyone will collaborate to create, for himself and for others, a return far more rich and important, as well as much less “uncertain”: the expedition itself, rich of adventure, discovery, relationships, emotions, information and experiences. Life.
Here they are. Mediterranei.
2024-2026 | Third Expedition
Simone Perotti – Writer and sailor, among the founders of the Progetto Mediterranean. I have been sailing for decades, and for over twelve years I have been trying the way to freedom. I had the first idea od Progetto Mediterranea because sea and freedom are the most powerful suggestion I know. And then because of the Mediterranean, so fascinating and rich, we all must stop talking: we have to do navigate it, live it. Together.
Francesca R. Piro – Physician and sommelier, among the founders of Progetto Mediterranea. On the sea, that found and fascinated me, I recognized my human dimension. Here I am, because I want to live and act. ‘The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity‘ [Amelia Earhart].
Nunzia Siragusa – Hello, I’m Nunzia, I was born in Rome 49 years ago. I’m a veterinarian by passion. I like to solve problems and try to overcome difficulties, build something, sit back and think. I like travelling, taking pictures, swimming, cooking, cleaning, reading. I like listening more than talking. I like floating on the sea making me carry by the wind. I like doing things with others and for others. I don’t like sleeping, I’m out of tune, I’m a vegetarian but I don’t exclude eggs and cheese from my diet. I don’t get tired easily.I chose Progetto Mediterranea because I think I have found all the things I like to do and the opportunity to discover new ones while sharing life’s time with others members.
Tommaso Abeltino – My name is Tomaso and I’m from Palau, a small tourist place in north Sardinia. I always loved the Sea, since I grew up very close to the coast, living and feeling it all the way: sailing, swimming and also scuba diving.
I graduated from the Merchant Navy school for Captains but I chose to be an IT guy. I spent a lot of years being a sailing instructor in different schools, used to sail a lot with friends and sometimes also professional Skipper. When I met Progetto Mediterranea I realized I wanted to be part of it, since it represents all of what I care about in my life: Sailing, Friendship, Culture, Science… I hardly can ask more!
Giuseppe Amato – Sailing with Simone Perotti is one of a kind experience…When I left them they had been staying on the boat Mediterranea for 70 days continuously and, except for some ailments due to the efforts required by the management of such a big boat (almost 18 metres long), their eyes were dreamers’ eyes.
Laura Giusti – … because I found myself… in the eyes, in the smiles, in the energies by sharing, comparing and searching. The sea, the waves, the smell of saltiness, the wind on the skin, the moon and the stars… The Nature is Freedom, an unique ‘Universe’ we are part of and it is The Essence. I love this world since years, it’s me! I love sailing and sailing boats as you always create a special relationship with them by testing the ability to navigate, to make decisions, to forecast the meteorological phenomena, to measure the human limit in front of this wonderful Immense. It is vain cheating ourselves behind ‘scaffolding’ just to believe that we are seriously LIVING… First of all honesty and self-awareness, forgiveness and gratitude with ourselves and other people for growth and Soul evolvement… it is a Journey… What ‘s the Course? Follow the second star on the right and then straight until the morning. Soul, I’m chasing that star with frequencies of love… Thank you!
Cristina Rubagotti – ‘If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea’ [Antoine de Saint-Exupery]. Sea, ancient stories, slow time and shared passion: that’s why Mediterranea is my journey.
Manuela Tinti – A doughter, two cats. I love the islands and the sea, the people, the journey. I love to listen, smile, talk and share. And The Mediterranean is a large island with a lot of land around it, to sail and walk together with you, my friends. ‘…who tied a sail to the mast and combined the route and the drift, who rowed standing up with long woods: they know that the waters have faces. And over the faces emerge squalls, calms, currents and jumping fish who dream to fly’ [Faces – Erri De Luca].
Giuliana Crimella – I come from Mediterranean, which is not South or North, nor East nor West. It’s the liquid belly between Asia, Africa and Europe. If one was born on one of its edges, ha has in the blood an archipelago of peoples. We have received from the Mediterranean the civilization voices: vocabularies, arts, genio, foods, drinks, religions, hydraulic, laws and methods to scan the horizon of the stars. [Erri De Luca]
Cinzia Armelisasso – Physician, expert as volunteer in international NGO associations. I have many passions in my life. One of these is the sea. In the sea there is the joy that feeds my hope and desire to always explore new paths. For this reason Mediterranea does for me and for my thirst for joy of life.
Laura Gensini – I have always studied art history, but ‘there is nothing that has shaped me, fulfilled me, taught me – or built me – more than those stolen hours in the study, seemingly absent-minded, but deeply meditative in the subconscious worship of three or four indisputable divinities: the Sea, the Sky, the Sun. I unknowingly rediscovered wonder and primitive exaltation. I do not know of a book that could have the same value, or of an author who could create within us the same state of fruitful stupor, of contemplation and of communion that I had known…’ [Paul Valéry, Mediterranean Inspirations, 1933]. When I see the sea now, I realize it has become the greatest source of inspiration in my life.”
Gianfranco Brunelli – “… Because knowing that somewhere, in the Mediterranean Sea, there’s a boat with friends waiting for you… is great”.
Teresa Ferrara – Physician. Mediterranean Sea to live, finally! Water, light, air, earth: essential, powerful and dynamic elements, like the feelings and relationships that they weave together. An ancient yet modern form of well-being. A culture of travel, of changes and of knowledge that evolves and costantly renewes itself.
Marzia Mattei – If you do not become the ocean, you’ll get seasick every day.
Michela Lippolis – “Sailing, sailing away like one’s soul sails even before seeing the light of day” [F. Guccini] A journey of comparison, understanding and acceptance. Necessary at a time when the world seems to go in the opposite direction.
Tiziano Paniz – From the mountains to the sea … with happy.
Emilia Cevasco – I’ m trying to be a free person. I’m a dreamer. I love the sea, the open spaces, the distant horizons, I especially love freedom and I believe in humanity.I believe in a new dialogue between Mediterrnean people. That’s why I’m here!
Stefania Nardini – Journalist and writer. “There is truth only in the eternity of the sea”
Dominique Donatella Neubert, called DoDo – Hi, I am Donatella Dominique Neubert, but everybody calls me Dodo. I am born in Paris from a Berliner father and a Venetian mother. Since 50 years I live in Rome. Divorced with two grown-up children, since 9 years I am also Greek, thanks to my partner. Sailing and the sea have always been part of our family life. At two years my father took me by boat, and I never went down.The Mediterranean and in particular the Aegean sea are my world. The Mediterranean Project captured me and confirmed to me that despite my variegated roots, I belong profoundly to this Mare Nostrum. I like everything about our sea, history, geography, people, food and I always feel at home. But I do not like what is happening to the Mediterranean and its people. Participating, even if late due to a somewhat chaotic family situation, was a real dream. Now I’m happy to be here. Glad to meet you. My motto, coined at about 3 years, is “jamais Dodo ne diras Zut, toujours Merde” said in English, “Dodo will never say “Zut” (in French it is equivalent to say “damn!”) but always “Shit”.
Max Tremolizzo – Milanese by birth, imported from Salento, Computer geek. Mediterranea is for me the mental state in which the stories, thoughts, laughter, tears, images and sounds experienced on board are nourishment for my soul; hay for my terrestrial life.
Caterina Castellano – with a 20-year-old son, technologist by job, dancer by passion. Reliable and pragmatic, finally bored of being as they wanted me, I said ADESSO BASTA. Simone’s first book, the following ones and the chronicles from Mediterranea have made grow my desire to get on board, to join this group of visionary nonconformists with great humanity.
Federica Marmo – Mediterranean Sea is my sea, and I have been wandering and living it for 40 years, speaking with it. What is there, under the sea surface? How does life flow beyond the horizon of my Mediterranean and what reflects in the eyes of those ones who see themselves reflected in the same waters but in a different place from mine? If I move along its coasts, would the voice of Mediterranean always be the same, or would it tell me different stories? Where do I come from and why am I who I am? To answer these and many other questions I studied biology, I traveled to the mainland and explored the underwater world. Finally I embarked on the beautiful Mediterranean sailing boat. What I have seen, heard, experienced thanks to this project and whoever is part of it, has literally changed the course of my life. Today, my Mediterranean Sea and world is no longer just in front of me but it’s all around me. Thanks to Mediterranea and the Project and the people, I can finally comprehend it.
Lavinia Cozza – Sharing is my joy and with the wind, the saltiness, the horizons and the creaking of the shrouds it’s nice to explore new worlds, inside and outside of me. Navigating with Mediterranea is feeling at home in the Mediterranean waters.
Sonia Cabibbo – Progetto Mediterranea Is love for the Sea and sailing. Union and sharing. Roots in the Mediterranean sea.
Valentino Vogliotti – Nothing in my life and training until not so long ago could make me think I wash ere today but… as they say “ship happens” and therefore all that remains in to prepare a small bag, whit the essentials insade, and leave, find friends, smell the wind, share the route, the salad and the pasta… Then, while you tidy up the bunk, you also tidy up your thoughts, to have only sea and wind around makes you reborn every day, and every day you can be better…
Regina Rodari – I live in the lombard countryside of Lago Maggiore. Water is my element, the sea is my passion. I love the light, the smells and the wonderful mix of cultures and living peoples who live the coast of the Mediterranean sea. For me, becoming a Mediterranean member is not just “giving up the moorings” but meeting a broad humanity, overcoming borders and opening mind and perhaps proving that this Sea can still teach us so much…
Lea Svanosio – Life is a journey: people, teachings, sensations, places, dances, knowledge, sun, sunsets, meetings, laughter and tears. I am the result of every moment in a mix of great chaos! Contrasts: reasoning versus instinct. There are moments… and this is the moment of my change! In my change there is also Progetto Mediterranea which has accompanied me and will accompany me on my journey.
Stefano Maneri – Hi, I’m Stefano. I lead a somewhat nomadic lifestyle and I’m still in search of a permanent home. That’s why I’m very happy to be part of this project.
“Be simple. Meditate. Learn every day. Keep your thoughts elevated. Help others. Always rise.”
Giancarlo Antonacci – Whenever I embark on a journey with Mediterranea, it is always a special moment, filled with curiosity for all the crew members who, with each voyage, share their passion for this project and enrich me with their diverse life experiences.
Thanks to Mediterranea, I have seen the sea from a new perspective. It has strengthened my awareness and confirmed how precious our environmental contribution is, aiming to leave future generations with at least the hope of a more sustainable future.
Milena Piubello – Milly from Verona. I believe in the small seeds and drops of the ocean. I enjoy immersing myself in reading a book, sitting in front of a blazing fireplace, or facing the vastness of the sea. I like listening to other people’s stories and learning new things. I love eating, trying new flavors, and sitting cross-legged in a convivial manner. I am crazy about traveling. I could go anywhere, anytime. Just give me a small backpack, and off I go! I love the smell of bread, mint, curry, Coccoina glue, frangipane, and sunscreen. I have always been a scout and deeply believe in all the values of scouting. I love to laugh, sing at the top of my lungs, and dance. I enjoy being swept away by the magic of certain phrases in songs. I believe in love. In all its forms. The only true driving force for me. Hygge is my favorite word.
Francesco Gori – I have always loved the sea and sailing. I like to cast off the moorings, the feeling of detaching myself from a safe harbor to head towards an unknown horizon. The sense of freedom.
I love good books, dinners with friends, good food, good wine, the smell of lake algae.
I love drinking a cold beer warmed by the last setting sun.
Shy to the right degree. A hardworking bear who is attracted to company.
More sedentary than traveler but fascinated by the spirit that underlies the Mediterranea Project.
Engineer, two daughters.
Cristina Martiri – I’m Umbrian, I absolutely love nature and furry friends…
After a long career path I came across Simone Perotti’s books which made me reflect until I made a change of direction. Now I am a free woman, I live here and now together with Progetto Mediterranea which is a sea in the sea of knowledge and growth
Laura Donzelli – I work in finance by profession, sailor for passion and fun, always curious in life
Claudia Murta – I’m from Genoa, the sea as a natural element that I love to experience “from within”. I’m convinced that the sharing of ideas, comparison, human relationships and those with nature are the most significant things we have in our lives. On Mediterranea, in the essentiality of life on board, together with perfect strangers, I found all of this.
Gioia Fanara – When I heard about Progetto Mediterranea for the first time in 2018 in an interview with Simone Perotti I exclaimed with a heartfelt “nice, me too!” I maintained that momentum and after the “everyone stops” during the pandemic, I enthusiastically joined the Journey, finding everything that had made me exclaim “nice, me too!”: people who I immediately felt like, the Boat that I I’ve already heard about the Casa despite being aware of its official “role”, pride in participating in the aims of the Project which I share… The setting of the Sea did the rest! Yes me too!!
Ioana Ionescu – I am Romanian and the sea I first encountered was the Black Sea. The first time I “saw” the sea, from land, I immediately set off on a journey without borders, then populated with hidden treasures, pirate adventures, dreams and visions of unknown lands, beyond the horizon line, where space and time curve, the sky and its stars join the intense blue of the water. I was afraid of it then, I felt that restlessness that only the promise of new discoveries brings. And since then the sea has entered inside, as a space without borders, of freedom, of travel, crossings of routes of men and history. And then, at a certain point, here it is, the Mediterranean. And with him a new life, yet to be discovered, the first trip as an adult, to Crete, followed by many others, in many corners of this blue womb. And finally, like a revelation, Mediterranea appears. Love at first sight, wonder at the undertaking, at the Project, dream of being part of it to share love, knowledge, ideas, energy, dreams, days, nights, silences, flavours, smells, stories.
Federico Bonadonna – I joined the Progetto Mediterranea, because I was born in the Mediterranean and with the project I would like to give my small contribution to safeguard this heritage of humanity.
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Fino al 2023
Ivana Boris – “‘It’s only with the heart that you can see clearly. What’s essential is invisible to the eye’ [The Little Prince]. The Mediterranean sea and Mediterranea. This, for me, is the spirit of the adventure, and I’m delighted to be part of it.”
Francesco Nacinovich – The Mediterranean preserves the history of its people. The laughter and the tears of those who had been enchanted by its waters long before us. Paraphrasing Borges, the Mediterranean is an ancient idiom, and I set the sails to listen, away from the hustle of the mainland, hoping to understand it. For the next 5years the sea will be my country, Mediterranea will be my home.
Alessandra Mieli – Last known job: Journalist. Mediterranea because ‘The act of journeying contributes towards a sense of physical and mental well-being, while the monotony of prolonged settlement or regular work weaves patterns in the brain that engender fatigue and a sense of personal inadequacy’ [Bruce Chatwin]
Luisa Tomasi – I love sea, wind and water! ‘Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover’ [Mark Twain]. I hope the journey could be the navigation, the wind could be so good to drive us where we want to go, the sea could be rough, just enough to be happy not scary, the places where we’ll stop could be full of positive energy and the ports could welcome our body and our soul.”
Angelita Pierro – I’m a ‘bookseller-innkeeper’ with behind a road of continuous changes of direction, but still sufficiently idealistic and determined to chase another chance. The magic of the Sea with its elements, the Journey to research myself and a new relationship with others, a new sense of time. Mediterranea, for me, is all this and so much more. It’s energy coming from a shared dream of change, that becomes reality. ‘The fate shuffles the cards, but we play them’ [Bernard Moitissier].
Luca Gatti – To feel the sensation that we could possess only when both the feet leave the dock.
Alessandra Ricci – Love for the sea and travel, among the eyes, smiles, words, actions of people living their passions and fostering their dreams.
Ruggero Todesco – I’m a very lucky man, blessed by life, but nevertheless searching for new experiences to share with my “new old friends” of Mediterranea. I’m 58 and I have 7 sons, but these are only details…
Marco Baghin – I’m a ‘son’ of Venice, the maritime Republic. The sea in our culture has always been a great opportunity to satisfy our ambitions and curiosities, to fulfill the desire of adventures in remote worlds. I got in touch with sailing only late in my life, but its ancestral moves and habits appeared immediately very close to my person, simple and natural. In other words, they looked familiar. The sea makes man horizons infinite and only asks respect and the bravery to go.
Cristina Di Mascio – I’m here because … “The journey not only opens the mind, it gives shape to it” [Bruce Chatwin]
Barbara Rizzato – If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together [African proverb]. The storm that I lived inside me calmed down once I got on board. “Do you know what does mean saling crossing the Aegean sea? You’ll feel the seasickness all the time” somebody has told me. The saling trip instead – 290 miles from Zakynthos to Marzamemi – was my salvation. The Mediterranei, my angels. The Mediterranean sea, my cradle. Sharing enriches me and I can only share with others what I have received and I receive as a gift every day.
Lucia Angeli – prehistoric and protohistoric archaeologist. “You can’t start a fire without a spark” [Dancing in the dark | Bruce Springsteen] Archaeology is my passion … swaying over time between research on the ground and research on books, in short, a perfect harmony between action and reflection. I got on board as Mediterranean’s Friend and from this year I chose to join Progetto Mediterranea because Mediterranea has triggered a new path … going everywhere
Mario Padula – Luck matters more than talent, Woody Allen’s protagonist says in Match Point (2005). But there’s a much more special talent: the one to go forward luck. It needs study, discipline, persistence. I arrived on Mediterranea by chance, but it’s not a chance that I arrived there. If you’re at the right place, then right things occurs; the wrong ones reach you everywhere. A part af that, I worked 26 years between publishing an television, till the right occasion: a lucky one but built step by step.
Emma Rijli – I’m Emma, I live in Florence but I come from the South Sea and I try to discover my roots again. With enthusiasm and collaboration I am going to share varied interests and diversified expectations in full solidarity, trying to get out of the pre-established order of things and reach with collective work and with my new travel companions, a new path … an extra life.
Giampietro Giudice – For twenty years I have been sailing with passion, Mediterranea is the step forward of my passion for the sea: adding to the pleasure of navigation a cultural project that looks to the future.
Cristina Sampiero – Because sailing is wonderful and Mediterranea and its people have entered my skin like salt water, like the sun, like the wind. And some time ago, suddenly, I realized that I didn’t want to go on without being part of Progetto Mediterranea anymore.
Olga Malkova – …I lie down on the grass, I hear the buzz increase. I imagine and dream my whole sea…
Lorenzo Stabile – I strongly believe that the meaning of our existence lies in relationships, in sharing and in our individual growth: this is why I joined Mediterranea, because I feel it resonates with these fundamental principles of mine, because it is a project where heart and brain become one thing.
Paola Casadio – Hi, I’m 55 years old, I’m from Ravenna, mother, daughter and divorced.
Psychology and Psychotherapist. I have been working for 30 years in both the public and private sectors. Now I do clinical practice only privately. I love studying and sailing. Progetto Mediterranea can satisfy my desire to sail away from the Romagna coasts with other people who share this passion like me.
Erika Berardi – She was born and raised in the town of Carpe Diem in a volcanic land sandwiched between two seas, emigrated to Nordic and foreign lands, she is realizing her dream of living on travel, stories, dance and creativity. with her lively restlessness she seeks calm and freedom in the deep blue and strongly believes that fortune only favors the bold.
Made up of 90% curiosity and extroversion, she is often attracted to anything that moves a little further beyond the limits.
“Be like the sea: transparent on the surface, deep in the soul.”
Valeria Cipolat – When you don’t have a mirror, it’s easier to look inside yourself. They say that the sea can heal wounds… I wonder if those who continue sailing are in fact all imaginary patients. Or it is the other way around. The sea gets you, so that you can no longer escape, and therefore – like a devious drug – it cause you a voluntary addiction. Surely J.C.Izzo was right when he said: “Happiness is a simple idea when facing the sea”.
Lucio Locci – Lucio “Luke” Locci travels the globe in search of the manual of life.In this wandering he walked in deserts, crossed mountains and even travelled between notes on staves, occasionally glimpsing a few pages of the coveted manual. Then he realized that his most profitable attitude would have been to look for other seekers, maybe even them with their pages, to put it all together. He finally discovered that the manual of life is a dynamic text, always in motion, like the waves of the sea.
Stefano Mattozzi – Drummer, biologist. When I go down to a port I like to listen to the sounds produced randomly by the people and by the things that they are using at that moment. I always go to see if there is a village festival. The Mediterranean region is full of rhythms that chase each other and mix with Art and Culture. I also find myself in this Project for the scientific usefulness it proposes, the defense of the sea should not be done in chatter.
Lea Masserey – In search of harmony, with myself and the elements surrounding me, I find serenity by living the sea, synonym of freedom, movement and hope, and learning from it. This sea, however, is a healer suffering. And I care about protecting the wonderful Mediterranean ecosystem from anthropocentrism. Besides the fascination for the sea and its power, for its open space full of energy, I have discovered wonderful travelling companions thanks to Progetto Mediterranea. The richness of stories and of the confrontation with others, the daily joy and the generosity of the crew members renders sailing even more unique.
Filippo Mennuni – In my navigations around the world I had the good luck to sail the waters of every sea and ocean, spinning the anchor in wonderful archipelagos or visiting incredible countries, meeting very interesting people and listening to stories of other times … I decided to share my experience with those who, like me, go by sea for love and passion.
Andrea Laghi – I’m a digital marketing specialist and I love the sea and sailing. I think the Mediterranean is the only sea in which, while I experience the vertigo of the unknown and the discovery of the blue horizon, of not seeing land, of the great open sea, at the same time I feel at home, surrounded by its millenary liquid memories, by its ancient voices, from the embrace of its mild climate and its unique scents.
