Tremiti – Italian Open Water Tour 2026

The Isole Tremiti stage, scheduled for May 23-24, 2026, presents a competitive schedule featuring 926m, 1852m, 3000m, and 6000m distances. Swimmers navigate the Adriatic waters surrounding the archipelago, a marine reserve known for its complex bathymetry and historical significance. The event is part of the annual Italian Open Water Tour, requiring registration via their dedicated mobile application. Participants should anticipate sea conditions typical of the late spring season in the Puglia region, where the water quality is managed under strict conservation regulations.

Historical echoes beneath the surface

Swimming through these channels involves more than just physical exertion; it is a passage through layers of Mediterranean history. Near the island of Capraia, swimmers often pass over the submerged 3-meter tall statue of Padre Pio. Placed on the seabed at a depth of 14 meters in 1998, this sculpture by Domenico Norcia is a landmark for those with the visual clarity to spot it from the surface. The islands also hold the memory of darker chapters: the 1938 Fascist internment of gay men on San Domino, a site of forced displacement that stands in stark contrast to the current recreational use of the surrounding waters. Closer to the main landing, the abbey-fortress of San Nicola bears the physical scars of the 1809 British naval bombardment, with cannonball strikes still clearly visible on the stone facade above the shoreline. This fortress was also the site of the 1334 Almogavaro pirate raid, an event that led to the massacre of the Cistercian monks and permanently altered the ecclesiastical history of the archipelago. Beyond these monuments, the islands have long been a place of confinement, famously documented by the twenty-year exile of Julia the Younger by her grandfather, Emperor Augustus, as well as the more fortunate escape of the historian Paolo Diacono, who successfully navigated these currents to flee his captors in 780.