Viking officially named its newest ocean ship, the Viking Vela, in a ceremony held in Trieste, Italy on Thursday, Dec. 5, according to a press release.

The event highlighted Viking’s longstanding collaboration with Fincantieri, headquartered in Trieste. Ivana Elice, vice president and project manager of Fincantieri’s Cruise Business Unit, served as the ship’s ceremonial godmother. She has played a key role in designing and engineering Viking’s ocean fleet for the past 12 years.

“We are proud to welcome the Viking Vela to our growing, award-winning fleet. With Fincantieri as our partner, we believe we have built the world’s most elegant fleet of small ocean ships,” said Torstein Hagen, chairman and CEO of Viking. “We thank Ivana Elice for being the godmother of the Viking Vela. In her role at Fincantieri, she has cared for our ocean ships during their construction just as a godmother would, and we are very appreciative of her contributions as a member of the extended Viking family.”

During the ceremony, Elice was presented with a Viking broad axe, previously used in the naming of the Viking Saturn in June 2023. Elice then pressed a button to release a bottle of Norwegian aquavit, which ceremonially broke against the ship’s hull. The event also featured performances by renowned soprano Sissel Kyrkjebø and Italian singer Alessandro Safina, celebrating Norwegian and Italian cultures through music.

Elice was appointed in 2012 to oversee the construction of Viking’s first ocean ship, the Viking Star. A graduate of the University of Genoa with a master’s degree in naval architecture and mechanical engineering, she began her career at Fincantieri in 1985. Her early work focused on noise and vibration design for naval vessels and submarines. She later held multiple leadership roles in hydrodynamics, ship construction and production engineering within the Merchant Division.