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
   Rome (Civitavecchia) port guide: where ships dock and what to do ashore
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
   Palma de Mallorca port guide: where ships dock and what to do ashore

10. Day 10 · At sea

11. Day 11

    Barcelona

    SpainArrive
    Barcelona port guide: where ships dock and what to do ashore