“[…] as I did, and as my son Cataldo did after me. Hoping that one day my grandson will do the same.”
— Nino Aprea
These words hold the whole story of a shipyard that, in Marina Grande, has never stopped working with wood. As early as 1867, the Statistical Atlas of the Merchant Navy, presented at the Paris World’s Fair, listed Cataldo and Antonino Aprea among the village’s master shipwrights, where boats had been built since 1760. When, in the 1970s and 1980s, the market turned to fiberglass, master Cataldo remained faithful to wood, alongside his sons Nino and Raffaele. Time proved him right: today the name Aprea is synonymous with the Sorrento gozzo, a tradition preserved intact for generations.
The same hands have brought celebrated restorations to life, such as the Pianosa, a 1947 lateen-rigged gozzo awarded the Navalis prize and declared of historic interest by the Italian Ministry of Culture, and the S. Antonino, the first ferry in the Gulf of Naples, featured in the film “Pane, amore e…” with Sophia Loren. More recently, the shipyard completed the reconstruction of Peter’s Boat, now on display at the Vatican Museums.
A place suspended in time
Virada Experience accompanies its guests on a private visit inside the shipyard, where little has changed in over two and a half centuries. Within these walls, the gozzo takes shape as it always has: the keel and the frames, the planking bent board by board, the fine wood finishes.
Inside the shipyard-museum, guests can admire splendid historic boats once owned by famous figures such as Eduardo De Filippo and Totò.
An authentic and extraordinary experience, discovering one of the symbols of the Sorrento Peninsula.
