mediterranean cruise Aug. 30

zazzy · April 7, 2004

Hello,

my husband and I are taking our first ever cruise in August. 14 days on the newly remodled HAL Westerdam. I was wondering what not to miss in some of the major ports, etc. we are leaving our 3 kids behind (yipee!!) something we have never done before.

zazzy

jbond · April 7, 2004

I don't have a HAL brochure handy, so I'm not sure what ports you are visiting. We sailed the Med on RCI's Splendour of the Seas and in September we are going again on the Brilliance of the Seas. We have visited Barcelona, Monte Carlo, Marseille, Livorno(Florence), Civitavecchia(Rome), Naples, Venice and Messina. If you are viisiting any of these ports, I'd be happy to give you my input on what we did and enjoyed.

zazzy · April 8, 2004

thanks,

we will be in dubrovnik (croatia), rome, tunisia/carthage (tunis), palermo, cagliari (sardinia), palma de mallorca, barcelona, monte carlo, florence/pisa, and back to rome. I have done a lot of research as to what is there, but i know there are "tourist spots" that should be avoided and some that are really worth the crowds.

zazzy

GottaCruz · April 8, 2004

zazzy,

Welcome to our CruiseCrazies family. Glad to have you with us and glad to see you posting. Please feel free to ask any questions you may have and also feel free to post your cruise date, birthday and anniversary to our CruiseCrazies calendar. WELCOME alt text

Shari2 · April 8, 2004

Hi zazzy!

Welcome aboard! I would love to do a Mediterranean cruise someday. I hope that you will give us a review of your trip when you return.

KeithnRita · April 8, 2004

zazzy,

What a great cruise for your first! We sailed the old Westerdam a few years ago--however, it wasn't to the Mediterranean. Maybe one day!

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jbond · April 8, 2004

dubrovnik (croatia), rome, tunisia/carthage (tunis), palermo, cagliari (sardinia), palma de mallorca, barcelona, monte carlo, florence/pisa, and back to rome.

Ok, I can give you some ideas about five of the ports.

Florence/Pisa.

The ship docks in Livorno and it is about a 45 minute drive to Pisa and anothe good 90 to Florence. I would recommend a ships tour because of the distance from the ship and the chaotic Italian traffic. If you are late getting back on a private trip, the ship will leave without you. On a ship's tour they will wait.

In Pisa we saw the Field of Miracles, with the Leaning Tower and Baptistry. Really beautiful and well worth seeing. There wasn't a lot of other things around and we moved on the Florence.

Don't miss the Duomo, it's awesome and Ghotti's Gates to Paradise are right next to it. It's crowded, but everywhere in Italy was crowded. We also visited Santa Croce, where Michaelangelo, Rossini and Galilleo are buried and the Palazzo Vecchio. The square in front of the Palazzo Vecchio is lined with store and bars, but there are some great fountains and works of art on display. Make sure that you visit Piazza Michealangelo. The view of the city is beautiful and you get a great view of the Ponte Vecchio and the River Arno. Florence is very compact and is easy to walk around by yourselves if you have a good map.

Rome.

Like Florence, you dock a long way from the city, at Civitavecchia. It's a long drive, crazy traffic and don't miss the ship.

We took a guided tour. Rome is a very large well spreadout city. Don't miss the Colosseum. This place was built almost 2000 years ago, seated 55,000 people and it's staggering to imagine what it muust have been like.

St Peters is another incredible place. Everywhere you look there are works of art. Even the floors are beautiful. We saw La Pieta and the beautiful altar under the massive cupola.

After that we went through the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel. Italy is just one overwhelming experience after another. This year we are going to spend our day checking out the fountains, the Spanish Steps and another visit to the Colosseum.

Barcelona.

One of my favourite cities. Beautiful, friendly and full of fantastic places. We will be leaving from Barca and we will be doing a 3 day pre cruise stay. Walk around by youselves, get a good map and start on Las Ramblas. Don't miss the Gothic Cathedral, La Sagrada Familia Cathedral, the Casa Mila and the Paleu Guell. It's easy to walk everywhere, everything is close together. Just be aware of purse snatchers.

Monte Carlo.

Incredibly clean, I've never seen anywhere as clean as Monte Carlo. It's also very expensive, and I mean EXPENSIVE. We actually docked in Villefranche further down the coast. We visited Nice and a delightful medieval town called Eze. We enjoyed Nice and Eze so much that we are going back again this year. Nice has the most beautiful flower market you have ever seen in your life. It was in the Cary Grant/Grace Kelly movie "To Catch A Thief". MC has a very nice cathedral, where Grace Kelly was married and also where she is buried.

Finally Palermo. We haven't been to Palermo but we have visited Sicily. It's a really beautiful island. We visited Taormina last time we were there, but we plan on doing an excursion out to see Mt Etna this time and see more of the island.

Sorry this was so long, but there's a lot to see, especially if you like "old stuff" like I do.