Italy's Costa Concordia cruise ship wreck on its final voyage to Genoa

Italy's once-luxurious Costa Concordia cruise liner embarked on its last voyage yesterday, as tug boats began towing it from its island wreck site to a scrapyard grave in one of the biggest salvage operations in maritime history.

Sunshine streamed down on the Mediterranean bay where hundreds of onlookers watched as the final cable attaching ship to shore was cut, finally severing ties between the Tuscan island of Giglio and the ship two and a half years after its capsize claimed 32 lives.

"It's hard not to get emotional," Franco Porcellacchia, an engineer with ship owner Costa Crociere, told AFP.

The rusting liner, roughly twice the size of the Titanic and now hoisted afloat by massive air chambers, will be tugged to the port of Genoa in northwest Italy, where it will be dismantled and scrapped.

The massive operation, including a 17-man crew aboard the Concordia, a dozen accompanying vessels, and two giant tug boats pulling the wreckage at a speed of just two knots per hour, is expected to reach Genoa in four days.