The best ports to keep your boat in 2023

Use your boat as a second home, mooring it in a safe marina to take vacations and weekends exploring the most beautiful places in Italy, different every year . That’s why in this article we reveal the best 2023 ports where to keep your boat.

Ports 2023 – Where to keep the boat

This is the well-established trend for most owners who own a boat 10 meters and up. The ranks of boat owners using the old “I keep my boat close to where I live” formula are shrinking.

Today there is a tendency to favor the choice of a port where to keep the boat according to the strategic location with the intention of experiencing the boat all year round by going to visit the bays and coasts that are near the port.

Perfect, but where do I keep the boat after choosing the region to explore by sea but also on land? Will I find a place? Where? To help you choose, we have compiled an up-to-date map of berth and marina/port availability in Italy, region by region.

So you can assess how much is the actual mooring availability depending on the area you want to visit.

Finally, we point out some marinas and marinas that are recommended for boat reliability and safety, in strategic locations that are easy to reach and have a wide range of services.

Here are the results of our research on ports, why every boating vacation is better than one in a second home, conducted on data from the Ministry of Infrastructure and Nautica in Figures by Confindustria Nautica.

In the table above, we have summarized a snapshot of the Italian port situation with numerical data, region by region, of berths in marinas and equipped ports, how many actual berths there are for boats over 10 meters, and the number of Marinas.

Ports 2023 – Where are the safe berths in Italy

The total number of berths in Italy available in a marina or marina is 112,495.

The Italian supply ranking is won by Liguria, which has 16,700 equipped berths with adequate services. It beats Sardinia, second, which has 15,671. In third place, ahead of the Adriatic, is Friuli Venezia Giulia with 11,313 berths. They are followed by, Campania in fourth place with 10,775 berths and fifth place is taken by Sicily with 10,519 total berths in secure facilities.

The total, we said, of equipped and safe berths is 112,495 distributed in the 14 Italian regions touched by the sea. But beware, of these only 54,146 can accommodate boats of 10 meters and up. And this is where things change and the rankings also.

Ports 2023 – How many berths are above 10m in Italy

We have reprocessed the data to provide you with a useful guide to where to moor a boat in Italy of size 10 meters and up. The total available is 54,646 berths.

We have deducted from the total the seasonal moorings, almost always “at the buoy” or with seasonal facilities, intended for boats under 10 meters. Berths definitely not adequate to keep the boat year-round in the water

The further region-by-region classification of berths “10 meters and up” with safety requirements in equipped marinas or ports denotes a dramatic decline in availability. The total number of berths is 54,646, less than half of the total berths in Italy (112,495), obviously in equipped tourist facilities (marinas and marinas).

Who has the most berths “above 10 meters”? Of the 16,700 berths in the winner of the ranking by total number of berths, Liguria, only 8,422 are for boats over 10 meters. In this special “over 10 meters” ranking of berths in second place rises Friuli Venezia Giulia with 7892 available berths, while Sardinia drops from second to fourth place with 5,701. Campania moves up the rankings and from fourth rises to third place with 6,363 “over 10 meters” seats available. Sardinia ranks fourth in the ranking with 5,701 moorings, followed by Tuscany with 5,142.

Italy’s 88 Marinas

To give you another yardstick, useful in assessing where to keep your boat in 2023 for a better boating vacation than at home, we surveyed, again in the 14 sea-facing regions in Italy, the actual number of Marinas.

We have excluded so-called marinas that can yes provide safe mooring but cannot always provide 100 percent security. The total census of “real Marina” is 88 facilities.

Here the winner with as many as 13 Marinas is Friuli Venezia Giulia, a leader in port infrastructure and a prime base for exploring neighboring Slovenia and Croatia. In second place tied are Liguria and Sardinia with 12 Marinas. In fourth place tied Veneto and Tuscany with 8 marinas, followed by Sicily with 7 facilities.

28 marinas in Italy where to keep your boat

And now let’s name names, what are the marinas where you can keep your boat in places that allow you to experience it year-round, that are strategically located so you can visit the bays and coasts that are close to the port whenever you want, for a weekend, a week, and for longer vacations. Using the boat just like a second rental home, but with the advantage that it moves on the sea.

We have selected 28 marinas practically all over Italy. Here is our selection to help you make your choice, region by region.

Liguria

• Marina di Varazze (Savona)
• Porto Lotti (la Spezia)
• Marina di Loano (Savona)

Tuscany

• Marina Esaom Cesa (Portoferraio, Elba Island)
• Marina Cala de’ Medici (Livorno)
• Marina di Scarlino (Grosseto)

Sardinia

• Marina Cala dei Sardi (Olbia)
• Marina di sant’Elmo (Alghero)

Apulia

• Marina of Brindisi

Veneto

• Venice Certosa Marina

Friuli Venezia-Giulia

• Marina Punta Faro Resort (Lignano Sabbiadoro)
• Marina Punta Gabbiani (Aprilia Marittima)
• Shipyard&Marina Sant’Andrea (Marano Lagoon)
• Marina Nova (Trieste)

Network of 14 Marinedi marinas and marinas (Campania, Sardinia, Lazio, Sicily, Tuscany, Apulia, Liguria, Marche, Basilicata)

(Marina di Procida, Marina di Cagliari, Marina di Capo d’Anzio, Marina di Forio d’Ischia, Marina di Teulada, Marina di Villasimius, Marina di Balestrate, Marina dei Presidi Porto Ercole, Marina di Brindisi, Marina di Vieste, Marina di Chiavari Calata Ovest, Marina di Porto San Giorgio, Marina di Policoro, Base Nautica Trapani).

• Learn more about Marinedi