Nazario Sauro (S 518) was the lead boat of the Sauro-class submarines of the Italian Navy.

Nazario Sauro was laid down at Fincantieri Monfalcone Shipyard on 26 June 1974 and launched on 9 October 1976.

The submarine's disarmament started on 1 May 2002 as she was moored at the Arsenal of La Spezia together with the sister submarine Carlo Fecia di Cossato, where she has been, since 2008, the subject of a restoration work for the transformation into a museum was implemented on behalf of the Institution of the Sea and Navigation Museums of Genoa, by the Fincantieri company, the same company that had built her in the late 1970s (then Italcantieri).

At dawn on 18 September 2009 the Nazario Sauro left the La Spezia for her last voyage.

The museum exhibition, designed and directed by the architect Roberto Bajano for the Galata - Sea Museum in collaboration with the Submarine Project Office of the Military Ships Directorate of Fincantieri, makes her the first museum ship in Italy visible in the water.