Good looking model of the heavy cruiser that was a member of the Trento class but with enough alterations to almost appear a separate class. Armed with 8 x 8" main guns in four turrets, Bolzano was a powerful cruiser, serving many of the same missions as her sister ships. Hit three times by 6" rounds from the British cruiser HMS Neptune in the battle of Calabria, two deaths and minor damage below the waterline was sustained but quickly repaired. Another round hit "B" turret but the guns continued to fire undeterred while a third round struck the torpedo room, where the two fatalities took place. At the beginning of the battle of Spartivento, her Ro.43 flying boat was the first to spot the British fleet 20 miles off Algeria. On 25 August 1941, while returning from an abortive attempt to intercept minelayer HMS
Manxman, used by the British on ressuply missions,
Bolzanowas damaged by a torpedo from the British submarine HMS Triumph near the Straits of Messina. With steering damaged, she was towed to Messina for repairs lasting three months, but hit again during an air raid.
In August 1942, when participation in the interception of the Pedestal convoy had been cancelled, she was again torpedoed while returning to base. Bolzano and the light cruiser Muzio Attendolo were both seriously damaged by torpedoes from the British submarine HMS Unbroken off the Aeolian Islands on 13 August. The damage required her magazines to be flooded and she was beached at the island of Panarea. After a month, she was salvaged and taken to Naples, then to La Spezia for repairs. At La Spezia in September the Italians surrendered and Bolzano was captured by the Germans but her damage made her unusable and subsequently she was sunk by human torpedoes in a combined Italian and British raid on 21 June 1944, being refloated and sold for scrap in 1947.