SS Guglielmo Marconi was a ocean liner

Ocean liner

An ocean liner is a ship designed to transport people from one seaport to another along regular long-distance maritime routes according to a schedule. Liners may also carry cargo or mail, and may sometimes be used for other purposes .Cargo vessels running to a schedule are sometimes referred to as...

 launched on 24 September 1961 for Lloyd Triestino's Genoa

Genoa

Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....

—Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

 service. Her sister ship was SS Galileo Galilei

SS Galileo Galilei

SS Galileo Galilei was an ocean liner built in 1963 by Cantieri Riuniti dell' Adriatico, Monfalcone, Italy for Lloyd Triestino's Italy—Australia service. In 1979 she was converted to a cruise ship, and subsequently sailed under the names Galileo and Meridian...

. The Guglielmo Marconi made her maiden voyage in November 1963. In 1976, Guglielmo Marconi was transferred to the Naples-Brazil-River Plate service of Italia Line. In 1979 she was transferred to Italia Crociere as a fulltime cruise ship. This was not a success and she was destined to Costa Lines in 1983.

After a two-year rebuild, the ship reappeared as SS Costa Riviera for Costa Cruises

Costa Cruises

Costa Cruises is a British-American owned Italian cruise line, based in Genoa, Italy.Founded in 1924, the company originally operated cargo ships, until the introduction of passenger services in 1947, with regular services between Italy and South America...

in 1985. Costa Riviera alternated between Caribbean and Alaskan cruising until 1993. In this year American Family Cruises was launched, a joint venture between Costa and Bruce Nierenburg, to operate cruises aimed at young American families with children. AFC were not successful, and the ship sailed for Genoa in September 1994 where she was converted back to the Costa Riviera, and began cruising in Europe. Costa Riviera was sold for scrap in 2001.