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Costa Concordia Reaches Final Destination


Tug boats push the Costa Concordia ship inside Genoa's port, in northern Italy, where the ship will be broken up for scrap, July 27, 2014.
Tug boats push the Costa Concordia ship inside Genoa's port, in northern Italy, where the ship will be broken up for scrap, July 27, 2014.

The rusty hulk of the Costa Concordia has reached its final destination after a two-year salvage operation off the Italian island of Giglio where the cruise liner capsized two years ago, killing 32 people.

A convoy of vessels accompanied the ship and its tugs as it made its way Sunday to the northwestern Italian port of Genoa where it will be scrapped.

The Costa Concordia was successfully refloated more than a week ago.

The ship rolled onto its side when it sank. It was pulled upright last September in a difficult operation known as "parbuckling" to prepare it for the refloating process.

Ship owner Costa Crociere estimates the cost of the salvage so far at more than $1.4 billion, with millions more budgeted for the scrapping contract.

The Costa Concordia was the largest Italian passenger ship ever built. It was two-and-a-half times as heavy as the Titanic.

It had four swimming pools, 13 bars, the largest spa center on any cruise ship, and a nine-deck-high, glass-domed lobby.

The ship's captain is on trial for manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning the vessel before all passengers had been evacuated.

Some information for this report was provided by AP.

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