The launch ceremony is a traditional custom that celebrates a ship being transferred from land to water for the first time and as the troncone slid down the inclined slipway, a bottle of sparkling wine was swung and smashed against her hull for good luck.

Queen Anne’s troncone measures 541 feet (165 metres) long, 117 feet (35.6 metres) wide and weighs 12,402 tons (11,251 tonnes).

This section of Queen Anne will now be sailed by tugboats through the Messina Strait, a narrow strait between the eastern tip of Sicily (Punta del Faro) and the western tip of Calabria (Punta Pezzo) in Southern Italy to Fincantieri's Marghera, Venice shipyard where Queen Anne’s build will be completed.