wreck

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CONTE DI SAVOIA

The Conte di Savoia sits in Istria’s relatively shallow waters, making it one of our favourite wreck dives for less experienced teams. It’s an old passenger ship, sunk during World War II, and now it’s just a broken, beautiful skeleton of metal on the seabed. You can often see the outline of the bow from the surface on a good day. Dropping down, the first thing you notice is the light. Even at 30 metres, the Mediterranean sun filters through, illuminating the schools of damselfish that dart around the mast. We always head for the stern first, where the propeller is still mostly intact, draped in green algae and often surrounded by small scorpionfish. Inside, penetration is limited, but the open deck areas are fantastic for exploring, with soft corals growing on bulkheads and crabs scuttling into crevices. Look closely, and you might spot a moray eel peering out from beneath a collapsed deck plate. It’s a melancholic dive, sure, but also a living museum. We’d suggest going early in the morning for the best visibility, before the boat traffic picks up.