The first Italian sampling campaign in the Arctic Ocean, at the geographic North Pole, has just finished. It was carried out by researchers from the Institute of Polar Sciences of the National Research Council (CNR-Isp), thanks to the ELENO (Habitat templatE, microbiaL signaturEs and icoNic life in a changing Arctic Ocean) project, winner of the international call PONANT-ARICE (Arctic Research Icebreaker Consortium) H2020, which gives the international scientific community the opportunity to access extreme places through collaboration with fleets of icebreaker boats from different countries around the world equipped with laboratories and research equipment. The goal of the ELENO project is to conduct sampling in the Arctic Ocean for studies on hydrography, carbon cycle, and the presence of pollutants such as micro- and nano-plastics. The research team arrived at the geographic North Pole at the end of August aboard the icebreaker "Le Commandant Charcot" of the Ponant Company. During the course of the mission, researchers sampled multiple hydrological stations and took daily bioaerosol measurements, data that are crucial for studying the health of this delicate ecosystem, which will then be analyzed in the Cnr-Isp laboratories. For now, the research team highlights how large tracts of the Arctic Ocean are no longer impassable due to the retreating sea ice cover. The Program for Research in the Arctic (PRA) was born a few years ago, and prior to this CNR-Isp mission, Italian oceanographic activities (basically by Ogs and CNR and in recent years by the Navy Hydrographic Institute) have been carried out only on vessels with an ice class that does not allow for 90 degrees north.