The training sail ship Amerigo Vespucci is the oldest unit still in commission in the Italian Navy.  She was built and fitted out at the Royal Shipyard of Castellammare di Stabia in 1930; laid down on May 12, 1930, launched on February 22, 1931, and delivered to the Italian Royal Navy on May 26 of the same year; she was commissioned as School Ship the following 6th of June, joining her sister ship Cristoforo Colombo, thus establishing a “School Ships Division.".​

In July of the same year started her first training cruise in Northern Europe. Afterwards, was extensively refitted in the years 1951, 1958, 1964, 1971, 1984, 1990, 1997 and in the year 2000 when the spaces for the female personnel were created.
In the mid 20’s of the 20th century, the Italian Navy tackled the problem of the ships modernization for the training of the Naval Academy Cadets. It was considered that the best impact with the marine environment would be to live aboard a sail ship, which requires a thorough knowledge of the natural elements.
From a technical-structural point of view, the Vespucci is a sailing ship with auxiliary power plant. The vessel is a full rigged three-masted steel with firesail, main and mizzen (all equipped with yards and square sails) plus the bowsprit, in every respect, the fourth mast. The ship has also fore-and-aft sails, jibs on the bowsprit, stays between the masts and the spanker.

The hull is of the three main decks type (deck, battery and tween decks) with quarter-deck and poop deck which are two superstructures rising on the main deck. The hull is painted black with two white stripes, harking back to the two gun decks of the ships her design is based on, but she carries only two 6pdr saluting guns in pivot mountings on the deck, forward of the mainmast. The deck planks are of teak wood and must be replaced every three years. Bow and stern are decorated with intricate ornaments in wood covered with pure gold foil. She has a life-size figurehead of Amerigo Vespucci in golden bronze. The stern gallery is accessible only through the Captain's saloon.
Many parts of the ship are in wood which differs according to the characteristics required: teak for the main deck and steering compartment; mahogany, teak and holy wood for the nautical fittings; oak, mahogany and walnut for the interior furnishing and the Council Chamber.

The ship is fitted with 11 boats: two speed-boats, two motor-boats, two fire-boats and four ship’s boats (oar- and sail- driven), employed for the training of the Cadets. Finally, astern, there is the typical “whaler” reserved for the Commanding Officer.
Compounded of about 280 members, the crew is considered the beating heart of the ship, divided in 15 Officers, 34 NCOs (Non Commissioned Officers) and 185 sailors performing numerous roles and duties. When the Naval Academy Cadets and Support Staff embark the number increases up to proximally 400 units.

The ship is named after the famous explorer Amerigo Vespucci. He was born in Florence on March 9, 1454 into a rich and noble family, his father, Nastagio, was a notary. After a business experience, he was hired as a clerk by the Florentine commercial house of Medici, headed by Lorenzo de’ Medici who sent him to Spain in the late 1491, first to Cadiz and then to Seville, where they had an agency for the fitting out of ships, where he met Christopher Columbus. Vespucci was attracted by the voyages of discovery which at that time opened the Atlantic Ocean ways to the seafarers of the Iberian Peninsula.

The number of the voyages made by Vespucci is unknown and several historical controversies have arisen in the course of time. The most recent studies fix in four the real number. The first two voyages were carried out for Spain, the last two for the King of Portugal.
During his first voyage, (1497-1498), Vespucci visited the Gulf of Mexico and sailed up the Atlantic coast of the United States. In his second voyage, (1499-1500), he left Central America and sailing south discovered the mouth of Rio de las Amazonas and descended up to Cape Sao Agostinho. On the way back he reached Trinidad, the Orinoco river mouth, heading then to Haiti before returning to Spain.

During his third voyage, (1501-1502), after a call at the Cape Verde Islands, he explored the Atlantic coasts of South America from Guaiana to Patagonia, discovering in January 1502 the Rio de Janeiro bay. That voyage aroused a great deal of interest and convinced Vespucci himself that the extremely long coast he had explored was not part of Asia but a “New World”. For this reason Martin Waldseemuller, when republishing the “Quatuor Americi Navigationes” in 1507, suggested that the newly discovered world be named America. The fourth voyage had to follow the same route, but the adverse weather conditions obliged the explorer to come back when still on the Brazil coasts. Amerigo Vespucci died in Siville on 22 February 1522.