Shipping - Italy: Books - History and Ships

Masters of the Italian Line - Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raffaello

The 1960s witnessed a magnificent, if misguided, swansong for the ocean liner. As the decade progressed a steady succession of elaborate new 'ships of state' populated the world's sea lanes, in futile defiance of the vapour trails above them.
Into this atmosphere of one-upmanship the Italian Line introduced Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raffaello, the largest, fastest and most prestigious passenger liners in the nation's post-war merchant marine.

Named after the Renaissance masters, this book tells their stories, from troubled inception to heart-rending finale. It explains their design origins and interior décor, relates the triumph and tragedy of their all-too-brief careers and provides an insight into what it was like to live, work and take passage on these vessels, each with their own special personality.
Profusely illustrated throughout, this book pays tribute to the ships and the people who brought them to life.

Italian Liners of the 1960s - The Costanzi Quartet

'Functionality is never an excuse for poor design' said the naval architect Nicolò Costanzi, a man whose synthesis of engineering and artistry created practical ships of sublime beauty.
This book tells the story of the four large passenger ships conceived by Costanzi in the late 1950s and early 1960s. These designs incorporated the most celebrated elements of his work and perhaps reflect the man at the very height of his powers.
The 'Costanzi Quartet' comprised:
- Lloyd Triestino's stylish emigrant carriers Galileo Galilei and Guglielmo Marconi
- Home Lines' groundbreaking Oceanic
- and Costa's speed queen, Eugenio C.

Packed with superb rare and previously unpublished illustrations, Ian Sebire looks at the defining works of the great Italian naval architect Nicolo Costanzi.

Great Mediterranean Passenger Ships

It is hard to think of the passenger liners from the golden era of Mediterranean cruising without also conjuring the nostalgic, dream-like vision of azure-blue waters, bright sunshine and swimming pools with clusters of umbrellas and sunbathing passengers.

The great age of Mediterranean passenger liners began in the 1920s when the Italians built their first big ships, such as the Augustus, Saturnia and Conte Grande. In the 1930s, things got really interesting with the creation of the superliners Rex and Conte di Savoia.
In the 1950s and '60s, as Italy built a huge post-war fleet, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Turkey and Israel commissioned their biggest ships yet.

William Miller has written ninety books on passenger ships and is an acknowledged world expert in his field.
Full of colour and the first-hand memories of passengers and crew, this endearing reflection on the majestic world of Mediterranean travel cannot be missed. Quick, the whistles are sounding!

Michelangelo e Raffaello - La fine di un'epoca

In the summer of 1960, the first sheets of the transatlantic liners were laid simultaneously on the dockyards of Genoa and Trieste, which would have completed the fleet reconstruction program after the heavy devastation of the war. The twin turbo ships Michelangelo and Raphael were two new ideal liners, perhaps the most beautiful, the most perfect, the most representative of the history of Italian shipbuilding.
In the frenzy of a nation that was projecting itself towards the future with an impetus and enthusiasm unprecedented in the history of the country, they embodied the dream of greatness, the national pride to be exhibited abroad.

The building of Michelangelo and Raphael took very long and from a commercial point of view the delay was disastrous: by now the plane had become the new transoceanic means par excellence, the speed of the means of communication a winning element compared to the comfort and style with which move.
Their career lasted only a decade; from 1965 to 1975 they went through a complex era, reflecting the strong contrasts, the lights and shadows that distinguish the transition from the boom years and the almost blind faith in the future to the dark age of political, social and economic uncertainties and chaos .

Michelangelo and Raphael were truly flagships of the paradox, unconsciously witnessing the rapid evolution and transformation of modern society. They closed forever an era, that of line navigation with New York, and they were the swan song of a world and a way of going to sea of which only extraordinary memories remain that are relived through the pages of this book. An homage to two magnificent Italian liners.

Text in Italian.