Vista - Mediterranean Culinary Voyage

Where this cruise calls, day by day

6 ports and 5 sea days over 10 Nights.

1. Day 1

   Rome (Civitavecchia)

   ItalyDepart

   Civitavecchia is a working port town on the Tyrrhenian coast, and it is not Rome - the city is about 80km southeast, roughly 80 minutes each way. Budget for that honestly: a Rome day is some four hours of transit bracketing whatever you actually see. The port has Fort Michelangelo on the quay and good fish-market lunches, a real option if you have done Rome before.

   • St Peter's Basilica and the Vatican Museums, with a timed entry booked well ahead
   • The Colosseum and the Roman Forum, a short walk apart on the Termini side
   • The Pantheon and the Trevi Fountain on a walking loop of the centro storico
   • Fort Michelangelo and the Terme Taurine Roman baths, for a day that stays in Civitavecchia

   Getting ashore

   Ships dock in Civitavecchia and a free shuttle runs to the port gate at Largo della Pace, from where it is a short walk to the station and a 70-80 minute train into Rome.

   Best months

   Apr-Jun and Sep-Oct (Jul-Aug hot, and the Rome queues are brutal)

2. Day 2

   Salerno

   ItalyPort

   Salerno is a working southern city with a Zaha Hadid-designed cruise terminal on its waterfront and a long promenade behind. Ships call because this is the eastern end of the Amalfi Coast - Amalfi and Ravello are reachable by road or, far better, by ferry from the same harbour. The city's own draw is a Norman cathedral with a crypt worth the detour.

   • A ferry along the coast to Amalfi and Positano, avoiding the coast road entirely
   • Ravello's Villa Rufolo and Villa Cimbrone gardens
   • The Duomo di San Matteo and its mosaic-lined crypt
   • Paestum's three Greek temples, about an hour south

   Getting ashore

   Ships dock at the Salerno Maritime Terminal on the city waterfront, a short walk from the old town and from the Amalfi Coast ferry berths.

   Best months

   May-Jun and Sep-Oct (the coast road is gridlocked in Jul-Aug)

3. Day 3 · At sea

4. Day 4

   Taormina (Sicily)

   ItalyPort

   Taormina is a cliff town some 200m above the Ionian sea, and ships cannot reach it - they anchor in the bay off Giardini Naxos below and tender in, after which you go up by bus or by the cable car from Mazzaro. Bigger ships dock at Messina or Catania and coach in instead. The town is one beautiful street with a Greek theatre at the end, and it is expensive and busy.

   • The Teatro Antico, a Greek theatre with Etna framed in the ruined stage wall
   • Corso Umberto, from Porta Messina to Porta Catania
   • Isola Bella, the tiny nature-reserve island below the cable car
   • Etna's craters, about an hour and a half inland

   Getting ashore

   Ships anchor off Giardini Naxos and tender ashore; from there it is a bus up the switchbacks, or the cable car from Mazzaro, to reach Taormina itself.

   Best months

   May-Jun and Sep-Oct (Jul-Aug hot and heaving)

5. Day 5

   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)

6. Day 6 · At sea

7. Day 7 · At sea

8. Day 8 · At sea

9. Day 9

   Palma de Mallorca

   SpainPort

   Mallorca's capital wraps around a wide bay with a sandstone Gothic cathedral, La Seu, standing right on the seafront where you can see it from the ship. Beyond the cathedral there is a genuine old town of narrow lanes, courtyards and patio bars that has nothing to do with the package-holiday coast further east. Most calls are long enough to add a mountain drive or a beach afternoon.

   • La Seu cathedral and the adjacent Almudaina royal palace
   • Bellver Castle, a circular hilltop fortress with views over the whole bay
   • The Passeig del Born and the old-town lanes around Placa Major
   • A drive over the Serra de Tramuntana to Valldemossa or Soller

   Getting ashore

   Ships dock at the Estacio Maritima terminals on the western side of the harbour, about 3-4 km from the cathedral; take the shuttle, the number 1 bus or a taxi.

   Best months

   May-Jun and Sep-Oct (Jul-Aug is very busy)

10. Day 10 · At sea

11. Day 11

    Barcelona

    SpainArrive

    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)