On Wednesday, October 14, 2026, at 6:30 p.m., the Italian Cultural Institute of Miami will welcome Alberto Luca Recchi, documentary filmmaker, author, and underwater photographer, for the lecture The Giants of the Mediterranean, a journey through images, stories, and adventures to discover the great creatures that inhabit the sea.
Whales, sperm whales, sharks: animals that, in the collective imagination, we often associate with distant oceans, yet they also live in the Mediterranean. Where can they be found? How do they live? And how is the sea they inhabit changing?
Recchi takes the audience beneath the surface of a familiar “Mare Nostrum” that is still full of surprises and secrets, drawing on a lifetime spent exploring the oceans and photographing and filming their creatures. Having led the first expeditions in the Mediterranean in search of whales in 1998, sharks in 1999, and sperm whales in 2004, Recchi belongs to the first generation able to document the underwater world with modern technology: the generation before his did not have access to such tools, while younger generations risk coming to know seas increasingly depleted of life.
His explorations have naturally taken him far beyond the Mediterranean. Miami, in particular, holds a special place in his story. For many years, it was the starting point for expeditions in search of sharks in the Bahamas: journeys aboard often spartan boats, alongside seafarers who seemed to know no fear. Recchi, as he likes to joke, had enough fear for both of them.
The evening will thus create a bridge between the Mediterranean and the waters of Florida, the Bahamas, and the Caribbean, combining scientific insight, photography, close encounters, and firsthand adventures.
Alberto Luca Recchi is the only Italian to have published a photography book with National Geographic and to have given a lecture on the sea at The Explorers Club in New York.
He collaborated for many years with Piero Angela, with whom he wrote five books and brought I Segreti del Mare (The Secrets of the Sea) to major theaters across Italy: Angela explained the science, while Recchi shared the adventures of his explorations.
Today, Recchi devotes himself primarily to public outreach, sharing the wonders and fragility of what he considers the greatest treasure chest of curiosities and secrets on the planet: the sea.
Reservations: iicmiami.segreteria@esteri.it
