The Vocational Diving School “MARCO POLO” is a non-profit organization, pursuing formative, social and occupational aims for statutory mansions, in favor of the rising generation searching for a job. It was founded in 1959 and, since that year, it has been continuously promoting professional training.

Founded by Giuliano Conte, who thrust his experiential and professional roots into war-purposed diving training during World War II, it has been the first institution of its kind in Europe and, until now, still is the only one in Italy to carry on annual formation, training, graduate and refresher courses for T.D.O (Technical Diver Operators) and H.T. (Hyperbaric Technicians).

Both categories have been created and founded by the School, obtaining official acknowledgments for their respective teaching methods,
 
For T.D.O.'s:

	From the Ministry of Education - Provincial Union for Technical Training of Rome (1968/1975);
	From Latium Region - Councillorship of Vocational Training (1975/today).

For Hyperbaric Technicians:
 

	From the Ministry of Health (1973/1974);
	From Latium Region (1976/1978) and Sardinia Region (1982/1984).

Those acknowledgments have been obtained according to current national and regional laws, succeeding in time, dealing with vocational training, particularly according to general policy law n° 845 - 21.12.1978 and for regional courses held with the financial help of EEC/ESF (European Social Fund).

Moreover in May 2000 the Latium Region in compliance with the legislative decrees 626/94,242/94,319/94 and 494/96 regulated for the first time in the European history the practice of the diving profession in the different fields concerned by authorising the School to carry out vocational and training courses according to the general policy law no.845/78, for the following jobs:
 
 

	DIVER TOURIST ASSISTANT;
	DIVER CAMERA OPERATOR;
	TECHICIAN OF UNDERWATER SURVEYS AND RESEARCH;
	DIVER ARCHAEOLOGIST;
	DIVER INSTRUCTOR.

All the Teaching Programs with their respective methodologies - both theoretical and practical - of the T.D.O, H.T ,DIVER TOURIST ASSISTANT; DIVER CAMERA OPERATOR;TECHICIAN OF UNDERWATER SURVEYS AND RESEARCH,DIVER ARCHAEOLOGIST; DIVER INSTRUCTOR. courses, are of exclusive property of the School, which created, experimented and continuously put them up-to-date, thus earning the gratifying approval of both national and international entrepreneurs of the particular branch, absorbing almost the totality of its qualified students.

Those programs have been, and still are, approved by decisions of the Regional Councils, which, for the first time in national diving and underwater activity, sponsored the courses (Latium Region 1976/'78 and Sardinia Region 1982/'84).

Concerning the teaching results of the courses and the final practical ability acquired by students, to the many positive opinions expressed by almost the totality of the concerns operating in this particular sector, we must add those pronounced by various civil services' officials presiding over the examining board of the courses themselves, which have always been extremely gratifying.

For its training aims, the School disposes of four hyperbaric installations (two-and multi-seater) for practical training in deep and shallow water, up to bathymetry -200, using suitable breathing-gas mixtures.

The SubIper Center (about which we're talking) was completed in 1974 and is the most practical and functional enterprise you can wish for, concerning both professional training activities and Hyperbaric First Aid for the treatment of embolism events occurring in sports-and non-sports divers-.

The Center is in fact authorized to give therapeutic first-aid to those struck by Decompression Sickness (D.S.), according to decisions of the Regional Council of Latium - Councillor's Office of Health n°3891 - 07.08.1979. It carried out a great number of specific interventions always free of charge obtaining rewarding and gratifying moral and professional results, as abundantly recognized and spread by the roman and national press.

Its "Subaqueous Inlet" contains more than one hundred pieces of complete individual diving equipment, TV and two-way-radio equipment, various fittings able to satisfy any advanced employment request and operational teaching, even in specialized professional tasks.

For its training achievements, the School disposes furthermore of a "Training Turret", a large metal cylinder (6m high and 4m diameter), provided with portholes set at 120°, permitting the constant view of all the students engaged in complicated operative drills, to consent a "de visu" control of the School's specialized personnel and/or teaching team. Such a teaching environment enables all the students to refine the operative and/or instrumental experiences, performed even in complete absence of visibility and/or during the execution of nocturnal training, at the same time developing those psychological faculties referable to the ENVIRONMENTAL ADAPTATION, SELF-CONTROL, diving HYGIENE, operational COORDINATION and respect for special ceremonials and technical procedures, meant to prevent any kind of risk and to preserve physical safety.

Besides the teaching activities "MARCO POLO" has carried on, since 1969, a particular social work of public interest, through::

G.S.P.I. –Gruppo Sommozzatori di Pronto Intervento (Diver's Group of Flying Squad) D.G.F.S. "Raniero Conte" - Auxiliary and voluntary organization of common welfare - acknowledged by:
 

	General Staff of Defense - Study Center for Civil Defense - circ. General Staff of The Army, Navy and Air Force n° 161/0207/921 - 13.02.1970;
	General Staff of the Army, VIII Comiliter, Off. O.A., Circ. military garrisons of Central Italy, n° 51606/3779 - 31.03.1970;
	City Council of Rome, Traffic Policemen Headquarter, circ. n° 44098 - 17.01.1969.

Besides direct call to D.G.F.A., the calls for the Flying Squad can be made at the Police Emergency number 113 and Carabinieri Flying Squad number 112.

D.G.F.S. is operative 24 h a day and its work is and has always been completely free of charge.

This is how, in 1972, with personal note n° 687 sent to authorities and to the Civil Service, the President of the Provincial Union for Technical Training of Rome expressed himself ... omissis... the free work of the Diver's Group Flying Squad, with its precious and unselfish helping action, does credit to the whole community of the Province and Region……….omissis……….

The, by now very numerous interventions, (made from 1969 D.G.F.S.'s year of establishment until today, in close collaboration with the Carabinieri's and Fire Brigade's Divers Squads) won the praise of the Civil Services, of those who obtained the benefits and of the daily press, which has always stressed the high grade of professionalism expressed by the diving specialists of D.G.F.S. itself, often operating in difficult environmental situations which, most of the time, required the use of sophisticated and highly specialized equipment.

At present D.G.F.S., with its technical diver personnel, suitable surface-and seabed-crafts, is engaged in underwater searching, survey and tracking of the Tiber's riverbed, in collaboration with the Ministry of the Cultural Heritage and Environmental Conservation - Archaeological Office of Rome - in agreement with S.T.A.S. - Technical Service for Underwater Archaeology (T.S.U.A.) of the aforesaid Ministry, on fiduciary authorization 20.10.1988, prot. n° 13165.
 

Hyperbaric First Aid made a great number of hyperbaric interventions, always in favor of the community (from 1969 to 1982), until - as a natural occupational outlet of the trained Hyperbaric Technicians of the School - the hyperbaric chamber of Policlinico Umberto I (1st Hospital in Rome) was put back into use after years of inactivity (since 1970) due to the lack of professionally trained technical personnel - and the formalization of the institution of Hyperbaric First Aid at the Marino Hospital in Cagliari (1st Hospital in Sardinia).

Italian Center of Hyperbaric Medicine whose activity is turned to the application of oxygen-therapy (HbO), of preventive medicine and Hyperbaric First Aid, of industrial medicine and connected underwater and hyperbaric work.

Furthermore we can't omit those who we put amongst the greatest moral satisfactions for the School as absolute precursor:
 

	officially instituting in 1969, for the first time in national history - the professional figure of the T.D.O. Technical Diver Operator - which, from that day on, has been "recognized" as a professional qualification for workers of this peculiar branch (replacing the misnomer "scuba-diver") and with which the T.D.O's can exert their right of enrollment on the Harbor - Office Registration Board, "conditio sine qua non" for the execution of underwater work in Italy - in the port itself and in its vicinity - following the prescriptions of the Ministerial Decrees of the Merchant Navy of 13.01.1979, Official Gazette n° 47 - 16.02.1979 and 02.02.1982, Official Gazette n° 65 - 08.03.1982;
	promoting in 1970, the institution by the Provincial Union for Technical Training of Rome, together with the Ministry of Education - of prize-allowances for study and profit, thus helping the students to pay for the courses, with particular regard to those coming from Italian cities other than Rome;
	obtaining in 1971, a special dispensation from the Vatican, to allow the enrolment of four priests, in the school, who would have been employed for the building of a Sanctuary entitled to "Madonna del Divino Amore" in the waters of the lake of Bracciano, at bathymetry -15, integrated in the construction project of the first Self-sufficient and Permanent Hydrospatial Experimental Station of the world;
	creating in 1972, the first Self-sufficient and Permanent Hydrospatial Experimental Station, to be installed in the lake of Bracciano (Rome) at bathymetry -15 and -70, with the approval of the national and international press, and the executive project of which has been officially presented at the Worldwide Scientific Congress, held in London 08.10.1973, published on the scientific magazine "Science Diving International";
	officially and internationally instituting - in 1973 - the specialized figure of the H.T. Hyperbaric Technician, and holding in the same year the first couple of training courses, completely sponsored by the Ministry of Health and exclusively reserved for graduands and graduates in Medicine, trained diving technicians and specialized hospital nurses;
	holding in 1974,and for the following 4 years and more - courses followed by members of the Fire Brigade, from the Provincial Headquarter of Rome and by students of the Technical Nautical State Institute "Marcantonio Colonna" of Rome;
	having been in 1976, a standing member of the E.D.T.C. (European Diving Technology Committee), dictating a particular set of rules at community stage, targeted on the study and arrangement of a special theoretical/practical training program in the connected underwater and hyperbaric branch;
	being from 1979 a fiduciary Organization of the Ministry of Merchant Navy (today Ministry of Transport and Navigation) for the practice of specialist medical examinations of psycho/physical attitude, as in the Sanitary Card enclosed to the Ministerial Decree 13.01.1979, through the "Marco Polo Hyperbaric Center D.G.F.S.";

Note: The Sanitary Card, elaborated and used by the School's sanitary staff since 1959, has been selected in 1978, amidst many other Cards examined by the Ministry of Health - General Direction Public Hygiene Services, VII Division - which gratified the School through public thanks ... omissis....... for the completeness of the objective data held by the Card………. omissis……….prescribing the Card itself as the only one qualified to ascertain the fitness of the professional divers on national territory, necessary to achieve the enrollment in the Harbor Office's Registration Board. The clinical tests and the sanitary prescriptions on the Card are currently operative on national territory;
 

obtaining from the Ministry of Health, with a special Decree 25.06.1991,the nomination of Expert member (in matter of professional training) of the "Technical Committee for the Arrangement of Rules for Prevention of Accidents and Professional Diseases during Underwater and Hyperbaric Activities", instituted within the Superior Institute for Prevention and Security at Work (S.I.P.S.W.), with Decree of the Ministry of Health - 25:09:1989. Currently working.

Having officially instituted in 2000, for the first time in the national history the jobs DIVER TOURIST ASSISTANT; DIVER CAMERA OPERATOR; TECHICIAN OF UNDERWATER SURVEYS AND RESEARCH; DIVER ARCHAEOLOGIST; DIVER INSTRUCTOR.

The School is finally happy to be nationally and internationally known, both for its reporting presence at important congresses and conferences of high scientific and technical value, and for the working "outlet" found in this context by hundreds of Technical Diver Operators trained at the School, who are constantly required by the national and international entrepreneurial market, for their acknowledged professional competence.