The Italian Naval League and the Lombardy Region start a collaboration to enhance sporting, social and environmental protection activities on lakes and rivers, with particular attention to young people and people with disabilities. The agreement was presented today at Palazzo Lombardia by the Undersecretary for Sport and Youth of the Lombardy Region, Federica Picchi, representing President Attilio Fontana, and by the President of the Italian Naval League, Admiral Donato Marzano.
In Lombardy there are 11 peripheral structures of the Italian Naval League. In addition to the oldest Section of the Lni, that of Milan, established in 1899, there are 10 structures distributed throughout the Lombardy region (Bergamo, Bovisio Masciago, Brescia-Desenzano del Garda, Crema, Cremona, Lodi, Mandello del Lario, Mantua, Pavia and Varese), which collaborate with regional and local public and private bodies, sports federations, associations, schools and universities. During the press conference, the main national projects of the Italian Naval League were presented. Among these, the ‘Sea of Legality’ campaign, which sees the use for purposes of public interest of 29 sailing boats confiscated from organized crime and dedicated to victims of mafia and terrorism and the ‘solidarity fleet’, with numerous inclusive nautical vehicles also present in Lombardy’s bodies of water which allow people with disabilities to experience sailing on the lakes without any barriers.
As part of the collaboration between the Italian Naval League and Save the Children to encourage sports practice among minors in conditions of socio-economic hardship, the first sailing and canoeing activities were started between the Milan section of the Lni and the Punto Luce in Milan Quarto Oggiaro. Furthermore, there are numerous training and environmental protection projects carried out with students during the school year and inclusive activities in favor of Lombardy associations. “With this agreement – explains Undersecretary Picchi – the Lombardy Region and the Italian Naval League strengthen a collaboration that combines sport, education and environmental protection. Through sailing, canoeing and all aquatic disciplines we want to offer young people training and growth experiences, which teach values such as respect for the rules, collaboration and environmental awareness. Together we are building a model that enhances the territories, promotes sustainable sports tourism and transmits a positive and shared vision of sport as a community tool. I thank the Naval League for the commitment, passion and ability to combine tradition and innovation”.
The president of the Lni, Admiral Donato Marzano declares: “The collaboration between the Italian Naval League and the Italian regions is particularly strategic for the pursuit of our institutional goals. The Lni is the main non-economic public body with an association base that deals with the sea and inland waters in Italy with 61,000 members, 249 sections and delegations and 80 nautical bases. We have always been at the service of the institutions and the territory and we are working on a framework law that recognize our prerogatives and our areas of competence. I would also like to dispel a myth that still persists: the Naval League is not only on the sea or along the coasts. We have 35 Sections that operate every day in inland waters”.
The Lombardy sections will be the leaders in the national ‘Fresh Waters’ initiative which will be held in spring 2026: “The project was born with the aim of enhancing the wealth of activities that we carry out on lakes and rivers, involving schools in the promotion and protection of inland waters and federating the skills and exchange of experiences between the members of the peripheral coastal structures of the Naval League and those of the inland areas. Lombardy and, in particular the city of Lecco and the Lake of Como, will host from tomorrow until November 1st the most important event for the associative life of the Lni, the 2025 general meeting of members”.
From 30 October to 1 November, representatives of the Italian Naval League from all over Italy gather in Lecco for the 2025 general assembly of members, organized by the sections of Mandello del Lario and Milan. This is the most attended Lni Assembly of the last 15 years and will be inaugurated tomorrow at 5.30 pm with a talk on nautical sports with guests Antonio Rossi, Olympic canoeist and president of the Italian Canoe Kayak Federation (Fick), Andrea Mura, ocean navigator, the Paralympic sailor of the Naval League of Chiavari-Lavagna, Eleonora Ferroni and Giacomo Filippo Martini, young sailor of the Mandello del Lario of the Lni.