My husband and I recently went on an amazing Mediterranean Cruise for our 20th wedding anniversary. We had dreamed of going on this cruise for 15+ years and I still can’t believe we actually went. We decided to go on the MSC cruise line and we were so happy with our choice! MSC cruise line was founded in Naples so they do Mediterranean cruises so well. The food was amazing, the entertainment was incredibly impressive and well done, and the whole vibe was very fun and calm at the same time.
Below was our itinerary. Something that I think people forget about when booking a cruise is that even though you don’t have to worry about how to each to get location, you do have to plan what you are going to do in each location if you’re not planning to book an excursion in each location. We are not big group excursion people so planning what we were going to do in each location took me HOURS and I have separate posts for each of these locations so you don’t have to do all that planning yourself!
- We flew into Rome and spent the day exploring Rome. Our flight was delayed about 2 hours so we didn’t get to do everything we wanted to do there but it was totally worth flying there to see the few things we made it to. We took the train from the Rome Airport to Rome Centrale and then walked the city from there. We also booked luggage storage ahead of time, which was super easy and cheap!
- We took the train from Rome to Florence the same evening we flew in. The train ride was about 2 hours long and we booked it ahead of time.
- We stayed in Florence for 2 nights. We had 1 day to explore Florence which definitely wasn’t enough but that’s all we had time for. We will be back!
- We took the train from Florence to Pisa, got off for two hours to explore Pisa, and then took the train from Pisa to Livorno, which was the port for our cruise. We took the bus from the train station to the port, which I will go into more in the Livorno post
- Our first cruise stop was Marseilles, France. You are not close to the old town area at the port so we had to take a taxi to the main touristy area
- The second stop was Barcelona, Spain. We took a train from the centrale station to our first tourist location, Park Guell, but then walked all the way back to the port, making many stops on the way back.
- The third stop was La Goulette, Africa. We did an MSC Excursion which I would highly recommend!
- Our fourth stop was Palermo, Italy. This city is super walkable, which we did in the morning, and then we took a 20 minute taxi ride to the beach. Not a cheap taxi ride but 100% worth it!
- Our final stop was Naples, Italy. We took the train to Pompeii and then took the train and then a taxi to San Gennaro Catacombs. This was a very busy day and we didn’t have much time to see the city but we were able to walk from the catacombs back to the port.
- We were supposed to port back in Livorno but due to weather, we had to port in La Spezia instead. We switched our pre-arranged train around to leave from La Spezia instead of Livorno which was a bit of a hassle but I was so happy we were able to see La Spezia because I loved it and it’s now on my list to go back to!
- We got back to Rome around 6pm and stayed at the Hilton attached to the airport (highly recommend!) and flew our early the next day.
Check my other posts to see more information (and pictures!) from each of the locations we went to!
“Travel Sparks Imagination, feeds our curiosity, and reminds us how much we have in common” Deborah Lloyd
TBD Travel with April 