Italy is home to Fincantieri, the world’s biggest builder of cruise ships, which are slower than classic ocean liners. It started out as a shipbuilder during the early years of the 20th century. Some of its earlier shipbuilding milestones include the biggest ship launched in the Mediterranean, the first super ocean liner in Italy, the first ship with an swimming pool outdoors, the first ship to have air conditioning, the first ship to be equipped with stabilizers, and the fastest ocean liner.
Since 1990, Fincantieri has built more than 130 cruise ships for 25 different cruise lines, claiming that one in every three cruise passengers travels on a Fincantieri-built ship. Their most recently built cruise ships include the Star Princess, Norwegian Aqua, and TUI Cruises’ Mein Schiff Relax in 2025, preceded by the Queen Anne, Explora II, Viking Vela, and Sun Princess in 2024. Cruise lines that are customers of Fincantieri include Princess, Holland America, Carnival, Costa, Viking, Cunard, Seabourn, MSC, Disney, Virgin, and Norwegian. In terms of cruise lines that have purchased the most ships from Fincantieri, the company has produced 21 ships for Princess, 17 ships for Holland America, 15 ships for Carnival, 13 ships for Viking, and 12 ships for Costa.
In addition to its cruise ships, Fincantieri also builds naval vessels, offshore oil and gas exploration vessels, ferries, ship interiors, and components. Fincantieri has shipyards that are located in various parts of Italy, including two in the Gulf of Genova, one in Palermo on the Mediterranean, and one in Trieste on the Adriatic.
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