Mediterranean to Venice – By Sea & River

Barcelona is one of the great cities of the Mediterranean and a single hotel night here before boarding Azamara Onward gives you enough time to begin absorbing it properly. The included private airport transfer gets you to your 4-star hotel and the rest of the day is yours. The Gothic Quarter’s medieval lanes, the Boqueria food market on La Rambla, the modernisme architecture of Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia and the waterfront of Barceloneta beach are all within reach depending on where the hotel sits. June in Barcelona means long evenings, outdoor dining on every street and the city at its most vivid.

A private transfer takes you from the hotel to the port, where Azamara Onward is docked and ready for boarding. Embarkation gives you the morning to extend your Barcelona exploration before the ship departs at 6pm. The Picasso Museum in the El Born neighbourhood, the Palau de la Musica Catalana and the Parc Guell with its mosaic terraces above the city are all excellent morning options. Board in the late afternoon and watch the extraordinary Barcelona skyline, with the Sagrada Familia’s spires visible above the rooftops, recede behind the stern as the ship clears the harbour.

Marseille is France’s second city and its oldest, founded by Greek sailors in 600 BC, and a day here rewards visitors who move past the tourist surface into the genuine energy of this complex and fascinating port. The Vieux Port, the old fishing harbour around which the city has grown for 2,600 years, is the natural starting point: the daily fish market at one end and the MuCEM, the museum of European and Mediterranean civilisations housed in a remarkable contemporary building on the harbour entrance, at the other. The Notre-Dame de la Garde basilica on the hilltop above the city gives the finest panoramic view of Marseille, the surrounding calanques coastline and the Frioul islands offshore. For those who prefer the Provencal countryside, the lavender fields of the Luberon are accessible by tour from the port, though June is early for peak lavender bloom.

Monaco is the smallest country in the world after the Vatican and the most concentrated expression of European wealth and glamour available within a single afternoon’s walk. The Casino de Monte-Carlo on Casino Square, whose Belle Epoque interiors have been the backdrop for more fictional villains and real fortunes than any building in Europe, is open for tours in the morning before the gaming rooms open at noon. The old town of Monaco-Ville on the Rock above the harbour, with the Prince’s Palace and the Oceanographic Museum founded by Prince Albert I in 1910, represents a Monaco entirely separate from the casino and superyacht culture below. The harbour itself, with its multi-deck motor yachts and the memory of every Monaco Grand Prix that has been raced through its streets since 1929, is worth an hour simply standing and absorbing.

Livorno is the port for two of the world’s most celebrated cities and the choice between them is genuinely difficult. Florence, 90 minutes inland by coach, is the city where the Italian Renaissance was invented: the Uffizi Gallery holds Botticelli’s Birth of Venus and Primavera, Leonardo’s Annunciation and Caravaggio’s Bacchus within a single building on the Arno. The Accademia holds Michelangelo’s David. The Duomo’s Brunelleschi dome, the first of its kind in the world and still the largest masonry dome ever constructed, dominates every view of the city from every direction. Pisa, 20 minutes from the port, offers the Campo dei Miracoli with the Leaning Tower, the Cathedral and the Baptistery in a single extraordinary ensemble of Romanesque marble on a green lawn. Both cities are exceptional. Both deserve more time than a day allows. Choose one and do it properly.

Rome from Civitavecchia is 90 minutes by coach or train and the full day in port that Azamara Onward provides makes the journey genuinely worthwhile. The Colosseum, the Roman Forum and the Palatine Hill cover 2,000 years of the Roman state’s history within walking distance of each other. The Vatican Museums, the Sistine Chapel and St Peter’s Basilica occupy the better part of a full morning even with pre-booked entry. For those who have visited Rome before, the less-visited experiences repay the journey equally well: the Borghese Gallery’s extraordinary Bernini sculptures in a small villa in the park, the Pantheon’s unrepeated single oculus dome and the Campo de’ Fiori’s morning market are all remarkable. June in Rome is hot and the combination of early start and pre-booked entry for every site is strongly recommended.

Sorrento perches on the edge of the cliffs above the Bay of Naples with a confidence that its precarious position seems designed to justify. The town itself is charming and relatively small: the historic centre’s narrow lanes, the Piazza Tasso and the clifftop gardens with their views over the bay to Vesuvius on the other side are all accessible on foot. The real appeal of Sorrento is as a base: the Amalfi Coast road begins just east of the town, Pompeii is 30 minutes by train, Capri is 25 minutes by hydrofoil and Naples is 45 minutes by ferry. June is the Amalfi Coast at its finest, the lemon groves and bougainvillea in full colour above the turquoise water, and the drive along the coastal road between Sorrento and Positano is one of the most beautiful in Italy.

Amalfi itself is a small medieval city wedged into a narrow valley at the foot of dramatic limestone cliffs, and the approach by sea gives the only view that properly captures its extraordinary setting. The Cathedral of Sant’Andrea, its black and white striped facade rising above a broad staircase at the top of the Piazza del Duomo, is one of the finest Norman-Arab-Byzantine buildings in southern Italy and the centrepiece of the town. The Paper Museum in the former paper mills along the Canneto valley above the town tells the story of Amalfi’s 13th-century paper-making industry, one of the oldest in Europe. The terraced hillsides above the town, planted with lemon groves in medieval times and still producing the sfusato amalfitano lemon used exclusively in the limoncello made throughout this coast, give the walk up through the town a scent that is entirely specific to this place.

A restful day at sea as Azamara Onward crosses from the Tyrrhenian Sea into the Adriatic, rounding the heel of Italy through the Strait of Otranto. The transition from the Italian coast to the Adriatic marks the shift from the western Mediterranean’s Latin cultural world to the eastern shore’s layered Venetian, Ottoman and Slavic heritage. Kotor arrives tomorrow and the briefing on Montenegro’s remarkable history, its centuries of resistance to Ottoman conquest and the extraordinary natural geography of the Bay of Kotor, is worth attending today as preparation.

Kotor is one of the Mediterranean’s most dramatic port arrivals, the Bay of Kotor narrowing to a final passage before the medieval walled city appears at the foot of the mountain. The walled medieval old town, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, sits at the foot of steep mountains at the head of a bay whose fjord-like character is unlike anything else on the Adriatic coast. The city walls climb the cliff face directly behind the old town to the fortress of San Giovanni 260 metres above the water, and the 1,350-step climb takes approximately 90 minutes and delivers the finest view of the bay available from land. The Cathedral of Saint Tryphon, built in 1166 and one of the finest Romanesque churches on the eastern Adriatic coast, anchors the old town’s central square. The Bay of Kotor at sunset, with the mountains reflected in the still water, is one of the most beautiful sights on this entire voyage.

Sibenik is one of the Adriatic’s most authentically Croatian cities, founded by Croats in the 11th century rather than by Romans or Venetians, and fiercely proud of the distinction. The Cathedral of St James is the centrepiece: a UNESCO World Heritage Site begun in 1402 and completed in 1536, the first Renaissance cathedral in the world to be built entirely from stone without brick or wood, whose innovative interlocking dome solved a structural problem that had defeated every other European architect of the period. The frieze of 71 stone portrait heads running around the cathedral’s exterior, each one a 15th-century citizen of Sibenik, gives the building a human specificity that makes it genuinely moving. The old town’s hillside lanes and the fortress of St Michael above the city are both excellent before the ship departs.

Koper is Slovenia’s only port city and one of the Adriatic’s most rewarding surprises: a compact Venetian-influenced old town on a former island, now connected to the Istrian mainland, whose marble-paved Tito Square and medieval lanes feel genuinely undiscovered compared to the Croatian ports visited over the past two days. The Venetian Gothic Town Hall and the Cathedral of the Assumption give the central square an architectural quality well above the city’s modest profile. The Loggia on the square serves excellent Istrian wine and the local olive oil produced in the hills immediately behind the city is among the finest in the northern Adriatic. The proximity of the Slovenian capital Ljubljana, 100 kilometres inland, makes Koper an optional day trip base for those who have not yet visited one of Central Europe’s most charming small capitals.

Azamara Onward arrives at Fusina on the morning of 19 June and the afternoon and evening are yours in Venice before tomorrow’s transition to S.S. La Venezia. The lagoon crossing from Fusina by water taxi or vaporetto, with the Venetian skyline assembling itself across the water as you approach, is one of the great arrivals in European travel. Twelve nights of Mediterranean sailing have led to this: the city that the Adriatic was always pointing toward. The afternoon in Venice before the river cruise begins is the ideal time to orient yourself for the seven days ahead.

Disembark Azamara Onward at Fusina this morning and board S.S. La Venezia, Uniworld’s boutique floating hotel moored in the heart of the historic city rather than at a distant cruise terminal. The transition between the two ships is private and included. S.S. La Venezia carries just 126 guests and the scale shifts immediately and completely from Azamara’s ocean ship to something intimate and unhurried. Venice is your home for the next seven nights and the private after-hours visit to St Mark’s Basilica this evening, when the gold mosaics are lit by the church’s own lamps and the crowds have entirely gone, is one of the finest ways to begin a week in this extraordinary city.

A full day to immerse yourself in Venice with Uniworld’s local guides leading the way through the calli and campi that most visitors never find. After 12 nights of Mediterranean ports the slower pace of the lagoon is a deliberate and welcome shift. The Rialto Bridge and the Doge’s Palace are essential, but the Dorsoduro sestiere with its Peggy Guggenheim Collection and the Campo Santa Margherita’s neighbourhood life represent the Venice that residents actually inhabit. The evening light in June on the canals lasts until 9pm and the city at midsummer is at its most golden and atmospheric.

Padua’s Scrovegni Chapel, completed in 1305, contains Giotto’s fresco cycle considered one of the most important works in Western art history. The figures move and express emotion in a way that no painter had achieved before, and the chapel is booked by timed entry so Uniworld’s advance access is genuinely valuable. The University of Padua, founded in 1222 as the second oldest in Italy, still operates in the medieval city centre and Galileo taught here for 18 years. The afternoon cruise to Mazzorbo, the quiet agricultural island connected to Burano by a wooden footbridge, is a complete contrast to the city morning: the island’s vineyards and market gardens in June are at their most productive and the light across the northern lagoon in the late afternoon is extraordinary.

Spend the morning on Burano, famous for its rainbow-coloured fishermen’s houses and centuries-old lacemaking tradition. Cruise south to Chioggia, a charming lagoon town often called “little Venice.”

A leisurely day to explore Chioggia’s bustling fish market, porticoed streets and beautiful baroque cathedral — authentic Italian life without the tourist crowds.

Bid farewell to Chioggia as you cruise back through the lagoon to Venice. Spend your final river cruise evening soaking up the atmosphere of this incomparable city.

Venice Another day to explore Venice at your own pace — revisit a favourite spot, discover a new neighbourhood or simply linger over an Aperol Spritz as the gondolas drift by.

Your Mediterranean to Venice journey concludes this morning with a shared transfer to Marco Polo Airport. Twenty nights from Barcelona to Venice by sea and river, covering Provence, Monte Carlo, Florence, Rome, the Amalfi Coast, the Bay of Kotor, the Croatian and Slovenian Adriatic coast and seven days in the Venetian lagoon. Ask your Cruiseabout specialist about extending your Venice stay if you are not ready to leave.