SS Michelangelo was an Italian ocean liner built in 1965 for Italian Line by Ansaldo Shipyards, Genoa. She was one of the last ships to be built primarily for liner service across the North Atlantic. Her sister ship was the SS Raffaello. The Italian Line had begun planning new ships in 1958. Originally they were to be only slightly larger than SS Leonardo da Vinci, which was still being built, but the jet aircraft had not had a notable effect on the Mediterranean area at the time and a pair of genuine super liners seemed like an attractive idea, not only from a commercial point of view but also from the point of view of providing jobs to sailors and shipyard workers. Hence it was decided that the new ships would be the largest to be built in Italy since the SS Rex in 1932.