ItalyUpdate

On the 4 th June 2009, the Costa Crociere cruise line, now owned by the American Carnival Corporation achieved a Guinness record by baptizing two new luxury liners contemporarily at Costas original home port of Genoa. The two godmothers who broke the bottles on the ships hull were Italian Olympic fencing champion, Valentina Vezzali and the popular singer Noa. The ceremony took place in grand style, with army parachute corps landing on the decks and a flyover by the Italian ace flight squadron Frecce Tricolore. The two new liners, the Pacifica, known as the music liner because music is the main theme of the cruise programme, and the Luminosa (the ship of light) bring the number of cruise ships in the Costa fleet to fourteen.

The cruise market in Italy is holding up well, despite the present recession. In 2008, a total of eight and a half million cruise passengers embarked from Italian ports and 2009 is expected to register an equal number of participants.