Regatta of Ancient Maritime Republics

The Maritime Republics was city state: Amalfi, Pisa, Genoa and Venice. These states competed with each other both commercially and militarily, from the 10th to the 13th centuries these cities built fleets of ships both for their own protection and to support extensive trade networks across the Mediterranean, and had an essential role in the Crusades.

The Republic or Duchy of Amalfi was a de facto independent state centred on the south Italian city of the same name during the tenth and eleventh centuries. Amalfi and its area were originally part of the larger ducatus of Naples, governed by a patrician, but it extracted itself from Byzantine vassalage and first elected a duke in 958. It rose to become an economic powerhouse, a commercial centre whose merchants dominated Mediterranean and Italian trade for a century before being surpassed and superseded by the city-states of the North, such as Pisa and Genoa. But in 1073, Amalfi lost its independence and fell to the Normans, from whose yoke it failed in two separate attempts to free itself.

In 1955 was made the "Regata delle Antiche Repubbliche Marinare" or "Palio delle Antiche Repubbliche Marinare" (Regatta of the Ancient Maritime Republics (or the Palio Ancient Maritime Republics). The event takes place every year. The race is preceded by a procession, during which a parade through the streets of the city hosting listed some wearing the shoes of ancient people that characterize each republic.