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A tribute to the companies and people who have made Barche a Motore great over these 35 years allowing it to be born, grow, and become great up to this historic anniversary. In these articles the great excellences of boating tell their stories and reveal their projects, making an important contribution to the knowledge of this world, which allows us all to go to sea, in all forms and contexts.
Marinedi is much more than a group of marinas: it is a vision that combines innovation, hospitality and passion for the sea. With a network of 13 marinas along the Italian coast, it offers boaters an unparalleled experience, with state-of-the-art services and the certainty of a berth always within reach.
When Renato Marconi, founder of Marinedi, presented his idea of creating a network of interconnected marinas in 2013, many thought it was an ambitious dream for a private national operator. Today, twelve years later, that dream called Marinedi has become the largest network of marinas in Italy and one of the main realities in the Mediterranean. With 13 marinas distributed from the Tyrrhenian to the Adriatic, from the islands to the peninsula, Marinedi in fact represents a unique model: a network that does not just offer moorings, but proposes a true integrated system of nautical hospitality respecting and enriching, both economically and culturally, the territorial realities that welcome the Marinas. An idea that comes right from founder Renato Marconi, a marine engineer with a passion for the sea and sailing. On the strength of his studies completed at the University of Rome under the guidance of Alberto Noli, since 1983 he has been working with the Fiat Group to build the marinas of Nettuno and Cala de’ Medici after a training in Monte Carlo where he treasured the teaching of Gianfranco D. Gilardini and Raymond Orfali, European pioneers of tourist marinas. After following masters of absolute prominence in Europe and the world, Marconi founded an engineering company, Acquatecno, which he still leads, and which operates in Italy and the World in engineering services for the planning, design and management of maritime works, coastal protection, and their impact on the environment. Indeed, Acquatecno is a reliable technical reference for public and private clients, Port Authorities, Regions and Local Authorities. At the beginning of the 2000s, it added to its professional technical activity the management of marinas, first with a public initiative – Italia Navigando – in which it participated, together with the company Sviluppo Italia Spa (today Invitalia Spa), then, starting in 2013, with the entirely private initiative of Marinedi.
The basic idea was simple but revolutionary: to bring to the recreational boating sector what the big hotel chains have done since World War II in tourism. A single brand, standardized services and guaranteed quality, but declined in different territories. In fact, each Marina of the Marinedi Group preserves its own local identity – made up of landscapes, traditions, typical gastronomic and cultural features – but at the same time is part of a Network that ensures homogeneous services, safety and assistance, well recognizable and appreciated. This approach has helped to spread a new culture of pleasure boating: no longer the single port as an isolated landing place, but a network of destinations linked by a single philosophy, certain and published rates, services offered 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and linked by common marketing policies. The Network allows the exchange of berths between Marinas without charge to customers as well as unique common promotions.
So today Marinedi manages more than 4,500 berths, with strategic marinas ranging from northern to southern Italy: from Chiavari in Liguria, to Porto Ercole in Tuscany, to Vieste on the Gargano, to Balestrate in Sicily, passing through the islands most loved by boaters such as Procida, Ischia, and Salina, to touch the great hubs of nautical tourism in Southern Sardinia such as Villasimius and Teulada, without neglecting hubs closer to airports such as Brindisi, Cagliari and Trapani and the marina village of Policoro. The strength of the Network lies not only in numbers, but also in the business opportunities offered to boaters. With the “8 months here and 4 months there” formula, boaters can choose a master port for most of the year and enjoy free hospitality in other Marinedi marinas for four months-a solution that has revolutionized the concept of seasonality and made sailing more flexible.
In recent years, Marinedi has complemented its expansion with a concrete commitment to sustainability. Energy efficiency programs, recharging stations, recycling collection systems and environmental education initiatives aimed at schools and young people have been introduced. One virtuous example is the project with the startup Sea the Change, which started at Marina di Vieste and Marina di Procida, raising awareness among students and local communities on the issue of plastic in the sea through creative and hands-on activities aimed at elementary and middle school classes in local schools. Next event at the Marina of Forio d’Ischia.
Culture as a “red thread” connecting each Marina in the Network to the territory behind it. Abandoning the well-established idea of the marina as a boat parking lot or mooring place isolated from the territory, with the founding in 2020 of theMarinedicultura Cultural Association, the Group has developed cultural events in each port with the deliberate intent to merge and unite boaters, hinterland residents and tourists in the enjoyment of theater performances, book presentations, talkshows featuring journalists, directors, writers, actors, politicians, and leading singers, as well as hosting sporting events and regattas of special national and international interest. These activities, accompanied by painting and sculpture exhibitions, photo contests and folklore events, bring the area closer to the Group’s port realities.
Marinedi is not just Italy. The network of marinas participates in major international boat shows-from Cannes to Paris, from Düsseldorf to Genoa and Southampton-with the aim of promoting Italian pleasure boating and attracting more and more foreign boat owners, especially from France, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, the UK and Eastern European countries increasingly present in our seas. The strength of the brand lies in presenting itself as one large diffuse port, capable of offering hospitality throughout the peninsula and islands. A choice that perfectly meets the needs of those who love to sail by discovering different destinations without sacrificing high standards of service.
Marinedi today represents a successful Italian case history: a visionary idea that has found concreteness and continues to grow, aiming at new development and internationalization goals. The future? To continue to connect territories, people and passions for the sea, combining innovation, sustainability and the great tradition of Italian boating with the goal that its Marinas will always represent a gateway to the territory and a fascinating piazza on the sea for local boaters and tourists. Because, as those who are part of the Network like to repeat. “a marina is not just a berth, it is an experience of travel, community, culture and life.”
Visit Marinedi’s website: click here
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