Italian Portion of Med Cruise

Posted by Raymond (Victorville, California, U.S.) on 12/31/17 08:51 PM

Hello, my family and I are going on a Western Mediterranean Cruise in March. It is myself, my wife, and our two 15 year old daughters. We've been to Europe before and have traveled on our own but this is our first Med Cruise. Three of our stops are in Italy which we've been to before, but for 2 of them it will be our first time there. They are Palermo and Savona. I've been looking at excursions that the ship is offering but none of them are very interesting. Our family enjoys museums, shopping for art, site seeing, and good food. I've also looked up some of the things that there is to do in these ports but if anyone can offer any good ideas or things that they've discovered at these locations, that would be great.

Thank you and Happy New Year.

Posted by Barbara

Brooklyn, NY

12/31/17 09:09 PM

4332 posts

When we went on our British Isles cruise, we used Toursbylocals.com to book private guides. We were 4 people also. Besides being able to customize our tour, in a few ports it was less expensive then the excursions. For example, in Dublin we chose a guide from the list available and emailed what we wanted to do and see. He let us know how long we needed for each sight and planned an itinerary starting at the sight furthest from the pier. In the one day we were able to see
Kilmainham Goal - tour
Guinness storehouse - tour (prebooked)
St. Patrick's Cathedral - tour
Walk through Trinity University grounds and Dublin Castle
Lunch with the best fish n chips ever
Stop for a little shopping
We were driven around in his car and we did not feel hurried (except for the shopping for which there is never enough time)
He was conscience of the time and got us back to the ship with 45 minutes to spare.
We also used them in Scotland.
They are a great company, emailed us a survey after each day. They always have a booth at the NYTimes Travel Show and each year we stop by to say hello and chat.

Posted by Suki

12/31/17 09:44 PM

11679 posts

Hire a taxi to take you up to Monreale from Palermo. You can also take a bus there. Incredible site.

Posted by acraven

Washington DC

01/01/18 12:31 AM

28450 posts

Definite yes on Monreale. Maybe the #1 sight in the area.

Palermo has a good (national) archaeological museum.

Google for info on the Palermo street (food) markets; very interesting experience.

There's a small tile museum mentioned on TripAdvisor that I really enjoyed; as of 2015 you needed to call to get a timed reservation. English spoken.

The city has a huge number of beautiful churches and oratorios (private chapels) of widely varying design. Although not at all religious, I enjoyed hunting them down. A decent guidebook should provide enough description to help you select a variety of places to visit. Days and hours vary quite a lot. Saturday is not the best day to visit churches because it is a popular day for weddings.

Posted by Chani

Tel Aviv

01/01/18 02:35 PM

15798 posts

Monreale is really the top sight. Plan to see it first, because traffic can be really really slow. Taxi is probably best. You can take the bus back to Palermo (but you have to know where to find it - otherwise taxi) and get off near the second best sight, the Cappella Palatina, then walk back and enjoy some of the other sights. I used Frommer's Old Palermo walking tour, from their website.