Naples, 15 October 2025 – A 13-metre sailing boat is all that is needed to reach Ellis Island, in New York Bay, retracing the route of countless migrations and remembering all those who, even today, leave their homeland in search of a better life.
The vessel is called Nesea, and her captain is Francesco Felice Buonfantino, a Neapolitan architect and sea enthusiast. This voyage is not only an adventure but also a personal and professional journey. Buonfantino heads the Neapolitan design studio Gnosis Progetti, which created the National Museum of Italian Emigration (MEI) in Genoa. The studio is now working on a new project within the historic Immacolatella building in the port of Naples — a space dedicated to honouring the stories of Neapolitan and Southern Italian emigration.
“Migration has always been a story of leaving one’s roots behind, a story of uprooting” – explains architect and captain Francesco Felice Buonfantino. “The people who arrived in Genoa or Naples to embark, often towards unknown destinations, entrusted their memories to places such as the Commenda or the Immacolatella. Those memories soaked into the walls, filtered into the foundations, were absorbed by the earth. Our task has been to bring those stories and memories back to life. In designing the two museums, we had the opportunity to study and deeply identify with these narratives, allowing us to create a careful conservation project and tell the story of millions of Italians who migrated” .
Nesea, with her small crew, will carry to New York the flag of the MEI, a symbol of memory, identity and hope. The flag, raised on the boat’s mast from the moment of departure, will be delivered to the Ellis Island Museum, an iconic site of Italian migration, where it will be kept as a testament to an ideal bridge between past migrations and those that, sadly, continue today.
“We wanted to create this initiative to connect our Italian institutions with Ellis Island, a partner within our international network. The story of emigration is the greatest popular and collective narrative of our country. The crew of Nesea, led by Captain Francesco Felice Buonfantino, with whom we share this journey, will stand as a new testimony – a remembrance of our past, but also a gaze towards the future,” comments Paolo Masini, President of the MEI Foundation, who took part in launching the Immacolatella project.
“Supporting this endeavour means, for NextGeo, honouring a fundamental part of our shared history. Migration has shaped identities, cultures and territories — and doing so through the sea, an element that unites, connects and tells stories, is a choice we deeply share. The Nesea crossing is both symbolic and tangible: it represents living memory and an invitation to reflect on the present and future of migration. We chose to be part of this project because we believe in the value of roots, but above all in the courage of those who dare to imagine new horizons. One final source of pride: among the Nesea crew members will be our very own Giovanni de Alteriis, Senior Geologist at NextGeo and an experienced sailor” – says Giovanni Ranieri, CEO of NextGeo.
The boat will set sail on 24 October 2025 from the port of Almerimar in Spain, where it arrived a few weeks ago after departing from Castellammare del Golfo in Sicily. The voyage will continue towards Gibraltar, then to the Canary Islands, where Nesea will join the ARC PLUS Ocean Regatta bound for the Grenadine Islands in the Caribbean, with a stop in Cape Verde. The journey will then proceed towards the United States, sailing up the east coast to finally reach New York.
