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Western Mediterranean Cruise--Excursions for any of these ports?

Posted by (Kentucky) on

Hi,
I will be on a 7-day cruise of the western Mediterranean in December. I have never visited any of the ports of call. I will be embarking/disembarking from Civitavecchia and staying a few nights in Rome on each end of the cruise.

I have the Rick Steves Mediterranean Cruise guide and have watched Cameron Hewitt's travel talk on cruising, but some of my ports aren't covered (Palermo, Malta, Genoa). I'd like advice on the merits of ship excursions versus self-guided at each of these ports. I will be traveling solo.

  1. Palermo -- Possible cruise ship excursions that are interesting are to Cefalu or to Segesta/Erice. I'm particularly interested in the latter. This seems to be the port I'm leaning the most towards the guided excursion.

  2. Malta -- I get the sense that there's plenty to do for a day near the port and I'm leaning to self-guide.

after a sea day

  1. Barcelona -- I'll probably take Cameron's lead, visit sights further out in the city at the start and work my way back to the ship.

  2. Marseille -- Leaning to Cameron's suggestion to take train to Aix-en-Provence, spend a few hours there, then take train back for a few hours in Marseille before reboarding.

  3. Genoa -- Not sure. This is the one that I'm the most up in the air about what to do. The cruise's excursions seem to be either stuff in Genoa I can do just as well without them or a trip to Milan, which strikes me as spending too much of the day on the coach there/back.

Posted by
11131 posts

Genoa- if you don’t want to just stay there, take a train a short ways south along the coast to lovely Santa Margherita Ligure. From there you can also visit adjacent Camogli and Portofino.
Palermo- Of the two ideas you mention, definitly visit Segesta and Erice. Segesta is such an awesome setting.
I hope you will have time for Palermo as well especially the Cathedral up at Monreale, world class. In city center Palatine Chapel, Cathedral, Opera House, food street markets.

Posted by
8124 posts

You might want to read about all these stops on Wikipedia.
As we sailed into Malta, I was bowled over to see these huge rock fortresses along the harbor. It's hard to believe that those 50' high walls were built of rock quarried in the Nile River Valley in Egypt and brought over on sailing ships. I've never seen anything like it.
And Malta has been inhabited by men for 5900 years. That's prehistoric. A popular day ferry trip is over to Gozo where their ancient history has been documented to be about the earliest.
We caught a public transit bus to the other end of the island and generally took in the scenery.
I most generally avoid cruise line excursions, and check online for private tours that are often just as good for less money.

Posted by
27062 posts

Agree that the cruise excursion to Segesta and Erice is the way to go if you want to see both. Cefalu is very easily done on your own by train. However, there is plenty to see in Palermo to fill a day in the form of gorgeous religious buildings (Monreale being #1), lively street markets and museums.

Posted by
8293 posts

As David (above) says check on line for private tours. In Valletta, Malta, just outside the city gates is a bus terminus. You can take a bus from there to almost anywhere on the island, so you might want to do a bit of research to see what appeals. Valletta itself is interesting enough to spend a day on your own. Do some historical research. You can see the underground rooms from which the DDay invasion was planned, one room having been Eisenhower’s office. The island of Malta was bombed constantly during WWII and the Maltese people were valiant to a fault, taking refuge in the underground rooms, originally excavated by Knights of Malta slaves. After the war the King of England, George VI, gave a special award for bravery to the people of Malta, though nothing could make up for their suffering. At least it was recognized.

EDIT. Now that I have written all that, I think it was the invasion of Italy that was planned in Malta. Oh, shoot.

Posted by
776 posts

Before you make your Erice/Segesta or Cefalu choice, I, too, suggest that you study all the wonders Palermo offers. And you're right there with no travel time. Most everything is reachable on foot with an easy bus connection to magnificent Monreale if Cappella Palatina isn't enough splendor for you.

On Malta I would also limit the day to Vallette where there, in St. John's church there are two Caravaggios and magnificent tapestries. if you've read a lot about the Crusades, the Battle of Lepanto, the knighthood orders, the Seige of Malta, Vallette is filled with historical sites.

Posted by
2169 posts

We found Genoa quite interesting. Unless there's something you're just dying to see in Milan, I think I'd skip that opportunity.

Posted by
78 posts

Thanks to all for their suggestions. I went ahead and added myself to the Roll Call for my cruise on the Cruise Critic forum in case I run across any like-minded travelers that I could share a private tour with. If not, I'll probably self-guide everything except maybe Palermo.

I went ahead and watched the RS Travel Talk on Sicily by Sarah Murdoch. I'm sure I'd be satisified doing Palermo/Monreale, especially with the information about Palermo being known for great street food! I'm still interested in Segesta/Erice, but we only have 8 hours in port and it seems I have to either choose the excursion (whether I do it with the cruise company or a private guide) or the city. I'm leaning towards just doing the city given the limited time frame and maybe doing a more thorough trip in Sicily in the future.

As far as Genoa, I like the idea of the short train trip to Santa Margherita Ligure and work my way back--this seems similar in spirit to Cameron Hewitt's suggestion of Aix-en-Provence when in port in Marseille.

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