Galileo Galilei was born in Pisa (then part of the Duchy of Florence), Italy, on 15 February 1564, the first of six children of Vincenzo Galilei, a famous lutenist, composer, and music theorist, and Giulia (née Ammannati), who had married in 1562. Galileo became an accomplished lutenist himself and would have learned early from his father a scepticism for established authority, the value of well-measured or quantified experimentation, an appreciation for a periodic or musical measure of time or rhythm, as well as the results expected from a combination of mathematics and experiment. Three of Galileo's five siblings survived infancy. The youngest,
SS Galileo Galilei to the decline of ocean liners. "Galileo Galilei" returned to Genoa and repaired after she struck a reef off the coast of West Africa on 13 January 1975. "Galileo Galilei" continued to operate on the Italy–Australia run until April 1977, at which point she was withdrawn from service and laid up. Her lay-up was short, and in October 1977 she returned to her builders for a lengthy reconstruction into a cruise ship. On 24 March 1979 the "Galileo Galilei" finally started cruise service with Italia Crociere (owned by Italia Navigazione, who also owned Lloyd Triestino). However, already in September of