Excerpted from an article in ” the Boatman” written by Gabriele Zambianchi

     We meet for the first time since the inception of this column, a shipping company based in Calabria. It is the Savadori Navigazione of Vibo Marina.
The family-owned company has been able to grow by adapting to an ever-changing tourism market, becoming one of the leading companies in the industry. Marianna, Antonio’s daughter, told me their story.

The company was founded in 2004, but has a solid foundation and experience in the tourism industry with roots in the past: it was grandfather Nicola, father of nine children, who walked the path of nautical tourism back in the 1970s. With a 50-person boat, he transported tourists practicing fishing tourism, with noodles on board, along the Coast of the Gods. Antonio, one of the sons, moved in the 1990s to Romagna, where he accumulated a wealth of experience, all related to the tourism and restaurant industry.

Calabria, it is known, is a wonderful land with great potential. Aware of this, Antonio and his wife Irene thus decided to leave Emilia Romagna and return to invest in the Calabrian territory, putting to good use what they had learned in the Romagna region and integrating it with the local tourism offer.

Thus Savadori Navigazione was born, which involved not only Antonio but also his children Mirco, Marianna and Sara.

The Magic Panarea, a motor ship designed to tackle the Tyrrhenian Sea, 29 meters long and a capacity of 290 passengers, was commissioned to the skilled hands of the Foschi Shipyard in Cesenatico. On this, Antonio and his family put their best efforts to develop the shipping market from Calabria to the Aeolian Islands,
making a major contribution over the years to increasing the influx of tourists to the area.

The trips, departing from Vibo Marina, Capo Vaticano and Tropea, included visits to Stromboli, Vulcano and Lipari, to which over time the island of Panarea, known as the VIP island, was also added. The offer is mainly structured into two types of tours: day tour, departing at 7 a.m. and returning at 7 p.m., and night tour, departing at 10 a.m. and returning at 10 p.m. The latter gives the opportunity, with favorable weather/sea conditions, to admire cradled by the waves the famous “sciara del fuoco,” a trail of lava and incandescent slag, which descends from the crater of Stromboli down to the sea.

The influx of tourists increased over time and so, assisted by his sons who are now adults and fully integrated into the family business, Antonio decided to supplement the fleet with a new motorboat. Thanks to the relationship of trust established with the Foschi brothers, the Summer Breeze, a fast 24-meter boat capable of comfortably carrying 180 passengers in the Lipari archipelago, was born in 2016. 

Savadori Navigazione’s possibilities for development in recent years are still increasing: “Despite the fears related to the pandemic we have had in the past summers,” Marianna says, “our company has reached a tourist pool during the entire season that exceeds 30 thousand passengers. That’s why we commissioned Foschi Shipyards in Cesenatico to build the new Sciara del Fuoco, to have a capacity suitable for such a large influx.” At 33 meters long, it can carry 400 passengers and is the largest that sails from Calabria for routes to the Aeolian Islands.

Today Savadori Navigazione employs, during the season from April to October, 5 crew members per ship, plus shore staff for ticketing and administration. 

In the company’s future vision is computerization, both on board, integrating entertainment with interactive screens and electronic devices, and on the web, developing online ticketing.
The current and future goal, to which Savadori Navigazione will always try to contribute, is the creation of infrastructure that facilitates tourism development in the area, a key sector for the entire region.