METAMORPHOSIS: From Liners to Cruise Ships (Part 3)

Sunday 1st October 2017
The second day of our weekend started with breakfast in the Panorama Restaurant in our SAM Hotel in Monfalcone. The Hotel accurately described it as a room on the top floor, where glass walls and ceilings guarantee superb views. The sun shone down again from a cloudless blue sky, and we could see the two MSC ships in the Fincantieri shipyard beyond some trees and rooftops. We could also see the white-painted Water Tower that was so noticeable yesterday.

Panorama Restaurant

Breakfast balcony view to ships


We checked out of our rooms, admired several items in the Reception area, and returned to the hire car in the street outside.

In Reception area

I liked this blue glass table

Moby Fantasy



Our next plan was to visit the Museo Cantieristica Monfalcone (known as MuCa), which was in a restored building very near to the entrance to the Fincantieri shipyard.

View from the Museum, just across the road from the Shipyard



It is located on the ground floor of a building originally conceived in 1920 as accommodation for unmarried workers not living in Monfalcone but working at the shipyard. It was bombed in the war, but in 2010 it was restored and developed; it is located in the Panzano district, known as the 'company town' and originally built on the initiative of the Cosulich family. The Museum was only opened earlier this year, 2017.

The MuCa exhibition is divided into 4 Thematic Areas:

* The city, the housing, social services, wars
* The yards, the entrepreneurs, the companies
* The factory labour
* Ships, collateral production, the corporate image

and we enjoyed seeing many of the details around the exhibition route. There were some wonderful and beautiful pieces of artwork in the rooms.

Ships built at the shipyard

Detail

Oceanic in the middle there

Eugenio C in the middle


I have many memories from the visit, including watching and admiring the very deft handling by my friend of one of the cranes used at the shipyard. From a central control station the visitor can 'pilot' the crane, lift and put cargo on the deck of a ship, move along the dock and observe the famous SATURNIA motor ship still under construction. It was not as easy as it looked!

Queen Elizabeth

Saturnia launch 1925 detail

Cosulich Line Saturnia

Local restoration

Opening of the Museum, in the Time Line


After that visit, we headed for local viewing areas so we could take photographs of the two new MSC ships in the Fincantieri shipyard.


To be continued...

METAMORPHOSIS: From Liners to Cruise Ships (Part 2)

Saturday 30th September 2017 (continued)
We were finally taken back to the shipyard entrance, handed in our hard hats, and thanked our guides for a wonderful afternoon.

Maurizio drove us back to town where we parked and then walked along to the Metamorphosis Exhibition.

The Monfalcone Exhibition

The banner


There were lots of people around and many were going into the Galleria. We followed them into the venue.

Booklet

Another view

Inside the booklet

Where's Wallis? booklet


Immediately we could see model ships, pictures of ships, a video playing on a large screen at the other end of the hall, books for sale, leaflets about the Exhibition, and lots of exhibits that immediately attracted our attention. One of them was the good ship OCEANIC, which Home Lines (founded by the Cosulich family) had originally intended to be a liner, but later became the first modern passenger ship to be intended exclusively for cruising. She was launched in 1963.

Michelangelo

Photograph by Ted Scull

Michelangelo photographed by Ted Scull

Michelangelo again

Model of Michelangelo

Model of Oceanic

Oceanic being fitted out

Monfalcone site in 1963

The latest Italian Navy ship built at the yard

View into the Galleria


Over an hour later we said our goodbyes and left the wonderful Galleria. It had been a fascinating experience to visit the Exhibition and follow the explanations of the Metamorphosis of the Company and Shipyard from Liners to Cruise Ships.

Maurizio drove us back to our hotel for a chance to drop off various souvenirs and quickly prepare to go out again, this time to drive the short distance around the bay to Trieste for dinner. We parked and walked along part of the promenade, familiar to me from my first visit here in November 2014 before sailing on COSTA DIADEMA on her maiden voyage. (See blog piece with more details.) She was built by Fincantieri and now I have experienced their Monfalcone shipyard at very close quarters.

Trieste's old Fish Market


One of the brightly lit buildings was the old Fish Market and we made a quick detour inside; Maurizio is to lecture there in a few days time, and he wanted to show us the inside of this converted building. Inside we were introduced to a Mrs Cosulich, and then to her husband, and she mentioned that she was involved with the arrangements for the annual boat festival of Trieste - the Barcolana. This is an historic international sailing regatta taking place each year in the Gulf of Trieste, with the highlight being the event held on the second Sunday of October. It must be an extraordinary sight, to see so many little sailing vessels in the Gulf. I've read that about 25,000 sailors take part (www.barcolana.it) during the weeks of the Regatta.

There were huge advertising pictures showing on the screen in the vast hall, and then I was offered a Virtual Reality experience for 3 minutes! I sat and had a headpiece placed on me, and suddenly I was sitting on one of the racing boats with a 360⁰ view of everything going on around me on the water! It's one thing to know about new technology, but even more fun to experience it.

We left the Fish Market reluctantly but had to get to a local side street restaurant for a dinner booking. We all enjoyed a freshly cooked and presented meal, as we discussed the events of the day. We had done many interesting things and were so glad to have made arrangements to visit the Metamorphosis Exhibition - which turned into many more events.

Tomorrow we plan to visit the Museo Cantieristica Monfalcone whilst it is open in the morning, take photographs of the MSC ships in the Fincantieri shipyard from local viewpoints in Monfalcone and then head to Venice to see what we can see.


To be continued...