Italian Line

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The Italian Line, also known as the Società di navigazione Italia, was a passenger shipping line that operated regular transatlantic service between Italy and the United States.

The Società di navigazione Italia was started in 1932 as Italia Flotte Riunite (United Fleets Italy), when the Italian government encouraged the fusion of Genoa-based Navigazione Generale Italiana, Turin-based Lloyd Sabaudo, and Trieste-based Cosulich STN, which was previously an Austro-Hungaric company.

The new company acquired the Cosulich-owned SS Saturnia and SS Vulcania, the Lloyd Sabaudo-owned SS Conte Rosso, SS Conte Biancamano and SS Conte Grande and the NGI-owned SS Giulio Cesare, SS Roma and SS Augustus. The same year two previously commissioned ocean liners were launched: the SS Rex, who captured the Blue Riband in 1933, and the SS Conte di Savoia .

During World War II, the company lost many of its ships, including the SS Rex and the SS Conte di Savoia. Other vessels were captured by the United States and converted into troopships; four of them survived the war: the SS Conte Biancamano, the SS Conte Grande, the SS Saturnia and the SS Vulcania.

The service was resumed only in 1947, under the company's new name Società di navigazione Italia. In addition to the four vessels returned by United States, two new vessels, the SS Andrea Doria and the SS Cristoforo Colombo, were soon commissioned to show the world that the country had recovered from the war and to reestablish the nation's pride.

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