MEDITERRANEAN & EGYPTIAN DISCOVERY

Welcome to Venice. You have 1 night to explore the city.

Venice built itself across 118 islands and somehow still surprises, gondolas threading canals in the shadow of marble palaces, St Mark’s Basilica catching the light differently every hour. Spend the morning exploring before boarding MSC Lirica this afternoon, bound for the Greek Isles

On the Peloponnese shores stands the little seaside town of Katakolon, Greece, an MSC Mediterranean cruises destination. Situated on a headland overlooking the blue Ionian Sea, this charming location boasts a lighthouse, the Agios Nicolaos Church, and musical instruments museum. A short ride away lies the ancient site of Olympia, the extraordinary UNESCO World Heritage Site. 3000 years ago, it hosted Greece’s first Olympic Games in its Panhellenic religious sanctuary.

Crete’s capital Heraklion, an MSC Mediterranean Cruises destination, is an energetic city with a prolific history.
Admire majestic Mount Yioúhtas as you dock in the harbour and ancient Koules Fortress on the port’s western pier. Discover the mythical Palace of Knossos or visit historical monasteries and churches. Crete is a fascinating slice of Greek island life just waiting to be explored!

Rhodes, a Greek Dodecanese island and MSC Mediterranean Cruises destination, is celebrated for its beautiful beaches, archaeological ruins, and magnificent museums. Its historical Old Town, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is the largest medieval city in the European continent!

Sitting on the stunning Cypriot coastline, Limassol makes for a fascinating MSC Mediterranean Cruises destination. The city is celebrated for its medieval castle, waterfront sculpture park, and vast array of museums. Beyond Limassol lies the fascinating town of Paphos and a host of natural and archaeological wonders including Millomeri Waterfalls and Apollo’s Sanctuary.

Port Said is an Egyptian city at the northern end of the Suez Canal, on the Mediterranean Sea. A concrete lighthouse dates from the canal’s opening in 1869. On the waterfront is the former department store Simon Arzt. Now disused, the art deco building offers a glimpse into the past, to when Port Said was a cosmopolitan trading hub.

Discover the ancient history of this cultural, intellectual, political and economic metropolis famous for its temperate winters, white sand beaches and magnifi cent scenery.

With its seafront cafés and ancient alleyways, shouting stallholders and travellers on the move, bustling, exuberant Split is one of Croatia’s and the Mediterranean’s most compelling cities, it’s easy to see this feeling when you step aground from your MSC cruise.

It has a unique historical heritage too, having grown out of the palace built here by the Roman Emperor Diocletian in 295AD. The palace remains Split’s central ingredient, having been gradually transformed into a warren of houses, tenements, churches and chapels by the various peoples who came to live here after Diocletian’s successors had departed.
Adapted long ago to serve as Split’s town centre, Diocletian’s Palace is certainly not an archaeological “site”. Although set-piece buildings such as Diocletian’s mausoleum (now the cathedral) and the Temple of Jupiter (now a baptistery) still remain, other aspects of the palace have been tinkered with so much by successive generations that it is no longer recognizable as an ancient Roman structure. Best place to start exploring with an MSC excursion the seaward side of the palace is Split’s broad and lively Riva.
Running along the palace’s southern facade, into which shops, cafés and a warren of tiny flats have been built, the Riva is where a large part of the city’s population congregates day and night to meet friends, catch up on gossip or idle away an hour or two in a café. Nearly everything worth seeing in Split is concentrated in the compact Old Town behind the waterfront Riva, made up in part of the various remains and conversions of Diocletian’s Palace itself, and the medieval additions to the west of it. You can walk across this area in about ten minutes, although it would take a lifetime to explore all its nooks and crannies.

MSC Lirica brings you back to Venice this morning, closing out the first half of your journey. If time allows before the train to Genoa, the Rialto Bridge and its market are an easy walk from the port, one last look at the canals before the Western Mediterranean leg begins.

Genoa’s old port opens straight onto a tangle of medieval lanes, the caruggi, hiding trattorias and centuries-old palazzi behind unmarked doors. Settle into your hotel tonight and get an early taste of the city before tomorrow’s excursion to Portofino.

Portofino’s harbour is small enough to take in from a single café table, pastel houses stacked above a curve of fishing boats and yachts. Spend the morning there before returning to Genoa this afternoon to board MSC Seaview, ready to sail into the Western Mediterranean.

Pompeii sits frozen mid-morning, its streets, bakeries and villas preserved almost exactly as Vesuvius left them in 79AD. Nine hours ashore gives you time for the ruins and still leaves the afternoon for Naples itself, pizza in the old centre or the view from Castel dell’Ovo

Palermo mixes Norman, Arab and Byzantine influence more openly than anywhere else in Sicily, nowhere more so than the golden mosaics inside Monreale’s cathedral, a short drive from port. Back in the city, the Ballarò market runs loud and fast well into the afternoon.

Valletta’s honey-coloured bastions rise straight from the water, a fortress city built by the Knights of St John and barely altered since. Nine hours ashore is enough to walk the old town, stand in the Upper Barrakka Gardens for the harbour view, and still make it back for a late lunch.

Barcelona rewards a wander more than a checklist, Gaudí’s architecture, the medieval lanes of the Gothic Quarter, tapas bars that don’t open until well after most cruise excursions have returned to port. Ten hours ashore is enough to see the big sights and still get properly lost for an hour

Marseille is France’s oldest city and looks it, in the best way, a working harbour ringed by pastel apartment blocks and the hilltop Basilique Notre-Dame de la Garde watching over it all. Inland, Provence’s lavender fields and hill towns are an easy excursion for anyone who’d rather trade the port for the countryside.

Your holiday comes to an end today. Interested in extending you stay? Ask us about our amazing range of packages available or speak with a Cruise Travel Advisor who will be able to customise your holiday with you.