The MSC Cruises-operated liner MSC Grandiosa - the first large-sized cruise ship to resume voyages after the worldwide suspension of operations due to the pandemic, returned on Sunday, August 23, to Port Genoa Italy, from which she left a week ago.
Grandiosa made stopovers in call ports Civitavecchia-Rome, Naples, Palermo Sicily, Valletta Malta before sailing back to Genoa, with ~3000 passengers and crew onboard.
Before being allowed onboard, the travelers were subjected to a couple of swabs to check for COVID infections. The vessel departs Sunday evening for Civitavecchia.
According to the president of the port of Genoa, Paolo Signorini, it was a great satisfaction for the Port to host the cruise. He added that in 2019, before the pandemic, they "had exceeded for the first time the threshold of two million cruise passengers, consolidating in the first two months of 2020 the position among the leading ports in the Mediterranean with a record of 150,000 passengers (+ 32% compared to 2019), demonstrating the considerable potential for the development of the ports of the Ligurian Sea Western.”