My adult daughters and I are on the May 16th 12 day cruise leaving Venice and ending in Barcelona with a day in Dubrovnik, three stops in Greece,(Santorini, Argostoli, & Corfu)and four stops in Italy (Rome, Catania, Naples,& Livorna). Does anyone have any suggestions to make the most out of our time? Biggest question is when in Livorna, do we go to Pisa and Florence or Cinque Terre? I'm pretty sure there is only time for one or the other.
Posted by
Tresana, Highlands Ranch, CO, USA
23626 posts
Steve is just anti cruise ship and loves to toss in that Frommer quote when ever he can. We have been on HA to most of those ports. We almost never use ship excurions. You can do all the ports independently but it does require a lot of homework on your part to research each of the ports and develop your options. If there are three or four of us, it can be more economical to book your own port tours. Generally there are walking tours available at the TI, sometimes you are hire a cab driver for half tour, or arrange private tours a head of times. You have a lot of options but limitations on message length means that each port cannot be discussed in detail.
Posted by
Palm Beach, Florida, United States
536 posts
Debbie - When coming into Livorno you can pick up a car at the docks and in about one hour be in La Spezia where you can jump on the single line train to the villages - Fun and Easy.
http://www.mapquest.com/maps?1c=Livorno&1s=Toscana&1y=IT&1l=43.552921&1g=10.32&1v=CITY&2c=La+Spezia&2s=Liguria&2y=IT&2l=44.10202&2g=9.82024&2v=CITY
They will also give you Mapquest when you pick up the car at the docks. You should get an IDP Certificate from any AAA office to take along with your drivers license. 50 of the 60 miles is on A12 - the other 10 are easy.
If the driving bothers you then you might consider a local driver(not too expensive) taking you out 30 miles to Lucca - A beautiful town.
Ciao, Greg
Regarding Santorini, Corfu - walking does it.
In Napoli please take the Hydrofoil which is within a few hundred yards of your ship and go over to either Sorrento or Capri for the day. Inexpensive and a whole lot of fun.
Posted by
Dallas, TX, USA
1170 posts
How much time is there at each port-of-call? If they are only one day each (or partial days), then you won't have a lot of time available to be traveling far inland, such as Florence. I've been on Holland America before and those stops can sometimes be rather short. And, you never know when there will be a transit strike in Italy. Stay close to the coast. Holland America makes a lot of money on those excursions.