Roma was built as a turbine powered liner in 1926 but her sister (Augustus) was completed in 1927 with diesel engines. Roma was refitted as a tourist-class cruise ship with a white hull in 1933 as modelled here while Augustus retained the black hull of a liner. Both ships were selected for conversion to aircraft carriers during WW2, Roma as Aquila and Augustus as Sparviero and both were bombed and sunk or scuttled incomplete by the end of the war.