Marine Museum

Since 1893, Cesenatico hosts the Museo della Marineria, unique in Italy because it is constituted by an exhibition area on land, and one on the sea. The building in which this museum is to be found is in the area of the harbour and was the object of celebrations as it was a fundamental resource for Cesenatico, until the advent of tourism.

The Museo della Marineria is divided into two sections, that on land and the floating part. In this latter part, the boats exhibited are moored in the old part of the Porto anale, the heart of the historical centre of Cesenatico which was moulded by Leonardo da Vinci at the beginning of the 16th century. Amongst the boats to be seen there is a fishing boat from Gabice, destined to fishing but also to transport, and other fishing boats like the "bragozzo" and the "topo" of Venetian origins.

The Land section of the museum hosts the two boats which are mostly used in this area, the trabaccolo and the bragozzo. Next to these there are the didactical and the interactive areas that try to take visitors back through the history of the sailing boats used in the Adriatic sea. It is possible to observe an interesting in-depth examination of the boat construction methods, whilst admiring a true naval carpentry which dates back to the 19th century.

Nowadays Cesenatico is a very well known seaside resort, so much so that there are hundreds of hotels in and around the town. The great part of the tourists can, hence, admire the Museo della Marineria during the Summer months, but the moment in which it becomes really evocative is surely the Christmas period. During this part of the year, in fact, the external part of the museum hosts a large "Floating Christmas Crib".