This report showcases the work of the HIBALL team from the University of Padua on Task 1 LongEval-Retrieval of CLEF 2023 [1] [2]. Our goal was to create a general-purpose information retrieval system, using the CLEF document corpus and judgments as our reference. We explored various approaches, including algorithmic techniques and machine learning methods, and compared their results. Our best-performing system, a fusion between classical and AI techniques, shows promising outcomes and may serve as a foundation for future developments.