MSC World Europa - Western Mediterranean

Where this cruise calls, day by day

7 ports and 1 sea day over 7 Nights.

1. Day 1

   Genoa

   ItalyDepart

   Genoa is a genuine port city rather than a port with a city attached - the terminal sits on the working waterfront and the old town begins immediately behind it. What is behind it is the caruggi, a knot of medieval alleys so narrow they barely catch daylight, opening suddenly onto the marble palaces of Via Garibaldi. Grittier than most Italian calls, and better for it.

   • The Palazzi dei Rolli on Via Garibaldi, several open as the Musei di Strada Nuova
   • The Acquario di Genova at the Porto Antico
   • The striped Cattedrale di San Lorenzo and the caruggi around it
   • Focaccia and farinata from an old-town bakery, which is the local point of pride

   Getting ashore

   Ships dock at the Stazione Marittima on Ponte dei Mille, a ten-minute walk from the Porto Antico and the edge of the old town.

   Best months

   Apr-Jun and Sep-Oct

2. Day 2

   Naples

   ItalyPort

   Naples is one of the few big Italian calls where the ship parks in the middle of the city - the Stazione Marittima sits at Molo Angioino with Castel Nuovo directly across the road. That makes it a rare port you can genuinely walk out of, though most passengers spend the day at Pompeii or on Capri instead. The city is loud, sooty and unpolished.

   • Pompeii or Herculaneum, both on the Circumvesuviana line from Garibaldi station
   • The Museo Archeologico Nazionale, which holds the mosaics and bronzes lifted out of Pompeii
   • Spaccanapoli and the Cappella Sansevero, home of the Veiled Christ
   • A hydrofoil to Capri from Molo Beverello, a few minutes' walk from the ship

   Getting ashore

   Ships berth at the Stazione Marittima on Molo Angioino in the city centre, a ten-minute walk from Piazza del Plebiscito with the hydrofoil pier next door.

   Best months

   Apr-Jun and Sep-Oct (Jul-Aug hot and crowded, and Pompeii has almost no shade)

3. Day 3

   Messina

   ItalyPort

   Messina faces Calabria across the strait and was flattened by an earthquake in 1908, so the city is mostly rebuilt and low-slung rather than historic. Ships dock right on the seafront, but the call is really a doorway: Taormina is under an hour south and Etna a little further. If you stay put, the set-piece is the cathedral's astronomical clock.

   • The Duomo's astronomical clock, the largest of its kind, which performs at noon
   • Taormina and its Greek theatre, about 50 minutes down the coast
   • Etna's lower craters and lava fields, by jeep or the Rifugio Sapienza cable car
   • The Museo Regionale, which holds two Caravaggios

   Getting ashore

   Ships dock on the Messina waterfront a few minutes from Piazza Duomo, and coaches for Taormina and Etna load at the pier.

   Best months

   Apr-Jun and Sep-Oct (Etna can be cold and cloud-capped while the coast is warm)

4. Day 4

   Valletta

   MaltaPort

   Valletta is a fortified 16th-century grid built by the Knights of St John on a peninsula between two harbours, and ships berth beneath it in the Grand Harbour. The city is small enough to cross in twenty minutes and dense with honey-coloured limestone, enclosed wooden balconies and streets that drop away into staircases. One of the best walk-off ports in the Mediterranean.

   • St John's Co-Cathedral, where Caravaggio's Beheading of St John hangs in the oratory
   • The Upper Barrakka Gardens and the Saluting Battery above the Grand Harbour
   • The Grandmaster's Palace and its armoury
   • Mdina, the silent walled city half an hour inland

   Getting ashore

   Ships dock at the Valletta Waterfront on Pinto Wharf; the Barrakka Lift carries you straight up the bastion wall into the city, or it is a steep walk round.

   Best months

   Apr-Jun and Sep-Nov (Jul-Aug hot and dry, with little shade in the streets)

5. Day 5 · At sea

6. Day 6

   Barcelona

   SpainPort

   The busiest cruise port in Europe, and for many Western Mediterranean itineraries the place the whole trip starts or ends. Barcelona is a full-scale city rather than a port town: Gaudi's unfinished basilica, a dense medieval quarter, and a working waterfront all within a few metro stops. Ships berth on a long industrial mole well outside the centre, so the day begins with a bus ride rather than a gangway stroll.

   • Sagrada Familia - book a timed entry well ahead; walk-ups are usually turned away
   • Park Guell and the Gaudi mosaics on Carmel hill
   • The Gothic Quarter and Barcelona Cathedral, on foot from Placa de Catalunya
   • La Boqueria market and a walk down La Rambla to the Columbus monument

   Getting ashore

   All cruise ships now use the Moll d'Adossat terminals roughly 3 km from the old city; the paid blue Portbus shuttle runs to the foot of La Rambla, and walking out is not practical.

   Best months

   Apr-Jun and Sep-Oct (Jul-Aug is hot, crowded and expensive)

7. Day 7

   Marseille

   FrancePort

   France's oldest city and its largest port, founded by Greek traders around 600 BC and still visibly a working, unpolished place. The Vieux-Port is the centre of gravity, with the Notre-Dame de la Garde basilica on the hill above and the limestone inlets of the Calanques to the south. Marseille also serves as the gateway to Provence, with Aix-en-Provence about 40 minutes inland.

   • Notre-Dame de la Garde and the panorama over the harbour and islands
   • MuCEM and the Fort Saint-Jean footbridges at the harbour mouth
   • Le Panier, the hillside old quarter behind the Vieux-Port
   • A boat trip into the Calanques or a coach to Aix-en-Provence

   Getting ashore

   The cruise terminals sit in the commercial port several kilometres north of the centre, so a shuttle bus to the Joliette or Vieux-Port area is effectively compulsory.

   Best months

   May-Jun and Sep-Oct (the mistral can blow cold and hard in spring)

8. Day 8

   Genoa

   ItalyArrive

   Genoa is a genuine port city rather than a port with a city attached - the terminal sits on the working waterfront and the old town begins immediately behind it. What is behind it is the caruggi, a knot of medieval alleys so narrow they barely catch daylight, opening suddenly onto the marble palaces of Via Garibaldi. Grittier than most Italian calls, and better for it.

   • The Palazzi dei Rolli on Via Garibaldi, several open as the Musei di Strada Nuova
   • The Acquario di Genova at the Porto Antico
   • The striped Cattedrale di San Lorenzo and the caruggi around it
   • Focaccia and farinata from an old-town bakery, which is the local point of pride

   Getting ashore

   Ships dock at the Stazione Marittima on Ponte dei Mille, a ten-minute walk from the Porto Antico and the edge of the old town.

   Best months

   Apr-Jun and Sep-Oct