At a naval base in La Spezia, Italy, we see the world famous tall ship “Amerigo Vespucci”. She was ordered in 1925 along with the Cristoforo Colombo, an identical ship that was decommissioned by the USSR after WWII, and is modelled on 18th century cannon ships.

However the Amerigo Vespucci has no cannons, which is a shame as I think cannons would have made the Cutty Sark Tall Ships’ Race - which she often competes in - a much more exciting affair.

The Naval Base is worth browsing as there’s various submarines and other ships in dry-dock kicking around. Wikipedia Link.

Thanks: Thomas Blüthgen

Yesterday, at their Geo Developer Day, Google released Google Earth 4.0 (Beta) - a major update to the mapping application which features 3D textured models and a new interface, as well as Linux support and a universal mac binary!

To coincide with the release we’ve improved our Google Earth links on Google Sightseeing posts by adding an excerpt from the post in the balloons that pop up. We’ve also much improved our Network Link (which shows all Google Sightseeing posts across the globe) by grouping posts into folders and adding an automatic refresh. If you’ve previously loaded the network link into Google Earth then we’d suggest removing it and adding the new link instead.

Feedback is welcome, just add a comment below. We’ll have some new sights for you later today!