Blu Livorno: “Biennale del mare e dell’acqua – la sottile linea blu”, the first edition from 14 to 17 May 2025

Blu Livorno, the Biennial of the Sea and Water – from Wednesday 14 to Saturday 17 May 2025 – is the event promoted by the Municipality of Livorno, supported by important public and private stakeholders, which focuses on the maritime vocation of the city and of those who experience the sea in all its forms. The aim is to address current issues and perspectives that can impact the lives of entire coastal communities.

The subtitle of the first edition, “The Thin Blue Line“, focuses attention on that indefinite border along which the land touches the sea: at the same time a threshold of access and a frontier, a place of continuous change, a fascinating but fragile point of contact between two worlds, this is the ideal and physical space where the contradictions of contemporary society explode. It is by looking at it that the Biennale del mare e dell'acqua aspires to effectively address the critical issues common to many coastal areas, helping to make the relationship between man, sea and water more sustainable.

"Today we see an idea that was born almost a year ago realized – they are the words of the mayor Luca Salvetti – an initiative that starts from the attempt and the need to enhance two aspects that are in the DNA of this city and that characterize it, namely the sea and water. The biennial aims to deal with this. The formula is ambitious, but it is meeting with everyone's approval at European, national and regional level. Through this initiative we aim to make Livorno take another leap in quality. An event of this kind was needed in the Tuscany Region and only Livorno could do it. The Biennale is inserted as a characterizing element of our current and future path and as soon as the idea was launched we began to outline a path that brought us to this moment.

The Biennale del Mare, which was initially intended to be a festival, has created a chain reaction of great interest from all the subjects we have come into contact with, starting from the European Community. Both the Parliament, the European Commission and the Committee of the Regions, after our meeting a few months ago, were struck by the idea of ​​the Biennale and immediately gave their support. So did the Ministries of the Sea and the Environment who, thanks to the support of the Prefect Giancarlo Dionisi, understood the level of the event and agreed to be part of it. For his part, President Giani clarified that Tuscany lacked an event of this kind linked to the sea and he joined, as did the armed forces, and operators in the sea and water sectors. The great attention from the institutions is outlined by important presences. The European Commissioner for the Mediterranean Suica is planning her presence, the MEPs Dario Nardella and Annalisa Corrado have confirmed their participation, as have the ministers Musumeci and Fratin. Three regional presidents will be present at the opening: Giani for Tuscany, Todde for Sardinia and De Pascale for Emilia Romagna".

"Blue Economy, social sustainability and environmental sustainability are the main themes of the first edition of the Biennale del Mare – states Barbara La Comba, event supervisor – The aim is to address the necessary transition from a linear form of economic development to a circular one. For this reason, the event is intended as a tool available to the administrations of the Tuscan coast to present solutions to the problems that affect them. All will be called to discuss it, because the new EU directives are giving the measure of the urgency of coordinating and using cutting-edge tools. We have nominated Livorno, on the recommendation of the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions, as a laboratory city for the application of the most important directives. A scientific committee will collect the final contributions of each event in order to represent all the critical issues that have emerged. These will be reported within a table that, in the middle of next year, will meet the European Union for a comprehensive reflection.".

He claims Anna Maria De Biasi, scientific coordinator of Blu Livorno: "This event represents a great opportunity for Livorno to become a reference point for issues related to the sea and water. However, we must escape from self-referentiality by making it not only the city of open ports, but also the city of open ideas. For this reason, The activities of the Biennale are expressed on many levels in order to convey important ideas to citizens as well. Knowledge is always at the basis of involvement. Managing and protecting correctly works when the citizen understands the meaning of the actions carried out. In this way, a further step is taken, which is the creation of a mentality that accepts the innovations connected to protection. Hence the event's declination in several sections: institutional, scientific, experimental, informative. And hence the opening to associations: a bridge between the scientific world of specialists and citizens".

At the heart of Blu Livorno will be the environment and environmental sustainability, but the economy, innovation and marine technologies will also find physical and reflective spaces. Depending on the context, the approach will be scientific, technical or promotional. But Blu Livorno is immediately ready to welcome the general public, for this reason an important cultural, informative and entertainment activity on the theme has been planned which will be expressed through exhibitions, entertainment initiatives, food proposals, sports activities and discovery of the territory in a tourist key with visits to discover historical and architectural beauties linked to the sea and water and the technical assets present in some of them.

Blu Livorno will take place inside an ideal village of one and a half kilometers on the city's seafront, one of the most beautiful and extensive in Italy, which will go from the Benetti and Lusben shipyards to the north, to the Naval Academy to the south, passing through many other locations: from the Lighthouse to the Scoglio della Regina, home to important research centers; from the Tirreno and Nettuno bathing establishments, to the splendid sea view of the Terrazza Mascagni which will host culture, food and entertainment; from the Aquarium, to the Bagni Pancaldi, to the Hotel Palazzo with their conference rooms, up to the area of ​​Piazza San Jacopo and the exhibition areas of the Hangar Creativi and the Museums of Villa Mimbelli.

The one offered by the Biennale del Mare, a plastic free initiative, aims to be an opportunity to activate discussion among the administrations that live along the coast to identify best practices, common solutions, applications to share, knowledge to bring back locally, all illustrated to the general public in a final report of the work. Through this practice, the aim is to create or strengthen communication channels to improve sea and coastal policies, involving the Tuscany Region and ANCI in the comparison with other Regions and Countries of the Mediterranean and entering into dialogue with the Government and the European Union.

Blu Livorno was born immediately as an event of national and international scope with the involvement of the Parliament, the Commission and the Conference of Peripheral and Maritime Regions of the European Union. At the national level, it will involve the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security, the Ministry of Civil Protection and Marine Policies, ANCI, CONI, Utilitalia, national AMBI, ARERA; at the regional level, it will involve the Tuscany Region, the Maremma and Tirreno Chamber of Commerce, the Livorno Foundation, the Northern Tyrrhenian Sea Port System Authority, the Amerigo Vespucci Tuscan Interporto, the Water Authority and CISPEL, the Northern Apennine Basin Authority, the Prefecture and Province of Livorno, the Harbour Master's Office, Tuscan coastal municipal administrations, Park Authorities, the Naval Academy, ASA, and the scientific bodies CNR, ISPRA, ARPAT, LAMMA, CIBM, the Navy Hydrographic Institute, the National Institute of Oceanography and Experimental Geophysics, the National Inter-University Consortium for Telecommunications, the University of Pisa and the Scuola Superiore S. Anna.

The Biennale del Mare is curated by the Municipality of Livorno with the support of the Goldoni Foundation for the organizational part, of the LEM Foundation - Livorno Euro Mediterranea for the promotion and communication part, with the important organizational support of ASA, Manager of the Integrated Water Service of the Central Tuscan coast and of the Interuniversity Center of Marine Biology, and the contribution of the Livorno Foundation with the Festival sull'Umorismo. This is an event entirely accessible to the disabled.

The event is divided into six thematic macro-areas:

1. La SECTION OF DEBATES OF SCIENTIFIC-INSTITUTIONAL INTEREST will take place in the conference rooms of Bagni Pancaldi, Aquarium, Naval Academy and Hotel Palazzo. Themes of reference will be coastal erosion, salt ingression into aquifers, monitoring actions on new emerging pollutants, bathing and anthropic impacts, protection of Posidonia, the future of coastal drinking and purification services, agriculture and irrigation along the coasts, this last aspect, discussed in a national conference planned at Hotel Palazzo. All meetings will have as a backdrop the most recent European Directives.
2. La EXHIBITION SECTION/BLUE ECONOMY will be held in the Hangar Creativi, the regenerated urban space located on the route from the sea to the Fattori Museum. Here, an Expo dedicated to new technologies applied to the sea will be hosted, as well as conferences that will address the challenges of sustainability, including logistics, tourism, fishing, coastal development, new technologies and the use of renewable energy along the coast: from wind power to offshore solar, up to the important development of green hydrogen, which could see Livorno as a Hub of primary importance. The Hangar will also host themed shows, a press area and spaces for BtoB meetings available to exhibitors. The theme of fuels for the energy and environmental transition will be addressed by OLT Offshore LNG Toscana in an initiative that will be held in parallel at the Pancaldi headquarters.
3. La ENTERTAINMENT AND FOOD SECTION will have the Terrazza Mascagni as its reference. At the center of the suggestive sea view there will be the Teatro della Terrazza which will host the proposals of the Festival on Humor: Antani. Comicità e satira come se fosse, produced by Fondazione Livorno, as well as a series of conferences on social themes. There will also be a catering area to promote culinary specialties curated by Slow Food, an institutional area, including the Harbour Office, Carabinieri and State Police, and an association area, with an important reference to the Livorno delle Nazioni and the theme of accessibility to the sea. The food and wine excellences at the time of Livorno Liberty will be the theme of the initiative “La Belle Époque del gusto” curated by Enoturistica at the Hotel Palazzo. Fisar and the European Sommelier School will also be present at the Biennale to tell the excellences of the Tuscan Coast. Finally, activities have been planned at the Terrazza Mascagni that will range from live drawing thanks to Fondazione Trossi Uberti, to astronomical observation with the ALSA association and much more.
4. La INFORMATION SECTION will be located between the Aquarium, Scoglio della Regina and the Naval Academy. Here, training and information sessions are planned for the general public: from experiential teaching for the little ones, to the opening of the research centers of the Scoglio della Regina in collaboration with the Port Authority, to visits to the Naval Academy and the discovery of the great organizational machine of the Civil Protection. Also on the program are activities to discover the creatures, habitats and seabeds with the experts of the Livorno Aquarium, as well as workshops, informative sessions and direct experiences with the Marine Biology Center and the research institutes of the educational center, ISPRA and the University Center. It will also be possible to snorkel with the Sottosopra association.
5. TOURIST-CULTURAL SECTION, aimed at discovering Livorno through excursions, visits to monuments and museums, temporary exhibitions, sports and entertainment activities. The Granai di Villa Mimbelli, adjacent to the Fattori Museum, will host a selection of works dedicated to Corto Maltese from 14 to 22 May: an artistic spin-off of the monographic exhibition of Hugo Pratt open in Siena, at the Palazzo delle Papesse, from 10 April. The Giovanni Fattori Museum will be open for guided tours in anticipation of the celebrations for the two hundredth anniversary of the artist's birth, which will be held in September. Boat tours organized by the Itinera and Pescatori Azimut cooperatives will set off from the Circolo Nautico Nazario Sauro, headed for the Fossi and Fortezze Medicei, the Port and the Secche della Meloria. Shuttle buses will leave from the Aquarium to visit the "monuments of Water": from the Gran Conserva del Cisternone, to the Corallo spa, up to the Acquedotto Leopoldino; but also walking tours, with guides who will tell about the places of the biennial and its connection with water thanks to Greencity Treks and Itinera. At the end of the Biennial, space will be given to the celebration of the opening of the Via Francigena del Mare from the Sorgenti Leopoldine to San Jacopo, an event in collaboration with local associations. The following will be involved, with an inaugural voyage by sea to the Italy-France border: the Livorno Paleontological Archaeological Group, the Confraternity of Santa Giulia, the Cammino di San Jacopo, the Proloco Livorno, the Cammini d'Etruria, the Cammino dei Tirreni, the Costiera Calafuria, CAI, OSC WWF, and the Giro Cacciucco bikers Association. In the southern access area to Blu Livorno, guided tours of the Crypt of San Jacopo and the Naval Academy and a LED wall on the history of the Lazzaretto di San Jacopo at the Baracchina Bianca have been planned. Near the north gate, the Benetti and Lusben shipyards, the Livorno lighthouse and the Navy ships docked at the Morosini dock will be open to visitors.
6. Finally, the SEA SPORTS SECTION. The marine areas facing the Tirreno and Bagni Nettuno bathing establishments and the Nazario Sauro pier will host sports activities and competitions open to the disabled, coordinated by the provincial CONI and associations. The related program is being defined together with the Naval Academy, the Harbour Office, Sportinsieme Livorno Federazione Parasailing Accademy, Moletto Ardenza, Wind Surf Gabriellini Surf Tre Ponti, Canoe Association, State Police Nautical Section, Italian Sailing Federation, Rowing, Fire Brigade, Palio Committee, Barontini Committee.

The event is supported by a large number of national and local economic stakeholders, but many more are in the process of joining. Large companies such as Azimut|Benetti Group, Solvay, Suez, Ineos, Iren, Alfasolution (Iren Group), Almaviva, Aquanexa, Gas and Heat, Erre2, Laviosa, Porto 2000, Interporto Toscano, Banco BPM, Lorenzini Terminal, Almaviva, Grudfos, Sares Srl, D-Marin, Gemis, Spedimar, Kaiser, 3d Next Tech, Caffè Toscano, Frangerini, Ies Solare, Navigo, Artes, Crossover, Mercedes, Mps. Revet have decided to support the Biennale with events and a presence.