The Washington Naval Conference gave Italy the opportunity to build battleships from 1927. Several projects with a displacement of 18,000 to 35,000 tons were under development simultaneously; some of the projects relied on foreign designs—Hood, Nelson, and Dunkerque—but some were unique. The design proposed by Admiral de Feo featured a ship with eight 320 mm guns in quadruple-gun turrets placed close to the midship frames while the secondary battery mounts were moved toward the ship's fore and aft ends.