One of the busiest cruise ports in the Mediterranean, the seaside city of Barcelona is known for its iconic architecture, colourful culture, and world-class drinking and dining.

Explore Antoni Gaudí’s surreal Sagrada Família, the famous boulevard of the Ramblas, the medieval Barri Gótic, and the Museu Picasso. But there’s even more to discover in this sprawling Spanish city, an MSC Mediterranean Cruises destination: from hidden tapas bars and fabulous food markets to Europe’s biggest football stadium.

Franču Rivjēras iespaidīgajā piekrastē atrodas Marseļa, MSC Cruises galamērķis. Šī atmosfēriskā ostas pilsēta ir pazīstama ar savu unikālo smalkuma un šarma sajaukumu, kas redzams tās ielu labirintā un vēsturiskajā arhitektūrā. Tikai dažu kilometru attālumā no Marseļas harizmātiskajām kafejnīcām un rosīgās Vieux Port atrodas satriecošas pilsētas. Apmeklējiet Eksanprovansu, Sezanas dzimteni, vai izbaudiet seno Aviņonas skaistumu.

Genoa is marvellously eclectic, vibrant and full of rough-edged style; it’s a great cruise excursion.

Indeed “La Superba” (The Superb), as it was known at the height of its authority as a Mediterranean superpower, boasts more zest and intrigue than all the surrounding coastal resorts put together.
During a holiday to Genoa you can explore its old town: a dense and fascinating warren of medieval alleyways home to large palazzi built in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries by Genoa’s wealthy mercantile families and now transformed into museums and art galleries. You should seek out the Cattedrale di San Lorenzo, the Palazzo Ducale, and the Renaissance palaces of Via Garibaldi which contain the cream of Genoa’s art collections, as well as furniture and decor from the grandest days of the city’s past, when its ships sailed to all corners of the Mediterranean Sea.

The Acquario di Genova is the city’s pride and joy, parked like a giant ocean liner on the waterfront, with seventy tanks housing sea creatures from all the world’s major habitats, including the world’s biggest reconstruction of a Caribbean coral reef. It’s a great aquarium by any standards, the second largest in Europe by capacity, and boasts a fashionably ecology-conscious slant and excellent background information in Italian and English.
Just 35 km south of Genoa, there’s no denying the appeal of Portofino, tucked into a protected inlet surrounded by lush cypress- and olive-clad slopes. It’s an A-list resort that has been attracting high-flying bankers, celebs and their hangers-on for years, as evidenced by the flotillas of giant yachts usually anchored just outside. It’s a tiny place that is attractive yet somehow off-putting at the same time, with a quota of fancy shops, bars and restaurants for a place twice its size.

Naples is a large, sprawling Mediterranean port, with a centre that has many different focuses just waiting to be discovered on an MSC Mediterranean cruise excursion.

MSC Mediterranean cruises also offer excursions to Pompeii. One of Campania’s most important Roman commercial centres – a moneyed resort for wealthy patricians and a trading town that exported wine and fish – the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79 in effect froze the town’s way of life as it stood at the time.
Trips can also be taken to the island of Capri, place of legend, home to the mythical Sirens and a much-eulogized playground of the super-rich in the years since – though now it has settled down to a lucrative existence as a target for day-trippers from the mainland.

Definitely worth a visit, but these days the origins of much of the purple prose may be hard to find.

Messina may well be your first sight of Sicily, and – from your MSC holiday cruise ship – it’s a fine one, the glittering town spread up the hillside beyond its sickle-shaped Mediterranean harbour.
On a shore excursion you can discover Messina’s most important monument, the Duomo, which epitomizes the city’s phoenix-like ability to re-create itself from the ashes of its last disaster. It’s the reconstruction of a twelfth-century cathedral erected by Roger II, one of a series of great Norman churches of Sicily that include the sumptuous cathedrals of Palermo and Cefalù. The Duomo’s detached campanile, or bell tower, claims to be the largest astronomical clock in the world, and puts on its best show at noon every day, when a bronze lion (Messina’s ancient emblem) unleashes a mighty roar over the city that can be quite alarming if you’re not expecting it!
Just back from the Duomo, the truncated section of the twelfth-century Chiesa Annunziata dei Catalani squats below pavement level, and is Messina’s only surviving example of Arab/Norman church-building.
When you are cruising the Mediterranean Sea with MSC Cruises, the most obvious excursion from Messina is to the almost too charming hill town of Taormina, spectacularly located on a rocky bluff between the Ionian Sea and the soaring peak of Mount Etna, whose summit with its bleak lava wilderness is one of the most memorable landscapes Italy has to offer.
Once the beloved retreat of poets and writers, Taormina is now the most illustrious resort on the entire island, captivating its visitors with its famous ancient theatre, grand hotels and engaging small-town charm.

UNESCO aizsargātā Valletas osta, Maltas salas galvaspilsēta, ir viena no pieturām, kas noteikti jāapskata katram Vidusjūras kruīzam.

Jūs varat apbrīnot šo ostu, ko 16. gadsimta otrajā pusē uzcēla francūzis Žans de la Valets un ko veidojis Jeruzalemes Svētā Jāņa reliģiskais un militārais ordenis, no sava MSC kuģa pat pirms izkāpšanas. Vairāk nekā 300 pieminekļu, kas paceļas nedaudz vairāk nekā puskvadrātkilometra platībā, padara šo vietu ar vienu no vislielākajiem vēsturiskajiem apskates objektiem, ko apmeklēt kruīza laikā, nemaz nerunājot par citām atrakcijām, piemēram, tās pludmalēm, piejūras vietām un restorāniem.
Ekskursiju uz salu var sākt tieši no tās galvaspilsētas Valletas, kas kruīza apmeklētājus apbur ar slavenajiem Maltas balkoniem, kas rotā namu fasādes tās vecajā kvartālā. Sv. Jāņa līdzkatedrāle ir viena no Maltas lielākajām tūristu apskates vietām, kuru ieskauj daudzas baznīcas, kuru salu iedzīvotāji apliecina, ka to ir tikpat daudz kā dienu gadā.
Savukārt Nacionālajā arheoloģijas muzejā glabājas salā atrastie aizvēsturiskie artefakti. Pie Lielās ostas var apmeklēt Auberge de Castille pazemes ejas un skaisto Baracca dārzu, no kura paveras skats uz ostu; naktī, kad pilsētas vārti aizvērās, tās portiķi kalpoja par ceļotāju patvērumu. Lai izbaudītu Maltas seno muižniecības dzīvi, apmeklējiet Casa Rocca Piccola.
16. gadsimta Palazzo ir 9. marķīza De Piro rezidence, un tajā ir antīkas mēbeles un bumbu patvertne, kas celta aizsardzībai pret sprādzieniem Otrā pasaules kara laikā. Filmas Popeye filmēšanas vieta joprojām ir skatāma no Maltas lielākās pludmales, kā arī Melliehas Dievmātes svētnīcas ar fresku, kurā attēlota Vissvētākā Jaunava Marija ar Kristu; saskaņā ar tradīciju šīs bizantiešu stila freskas autors ir svētais Lūks, kurš kopā ar svēto Pāvilu cieta kuģa avārijā uz salas.

One of the busiest cruise ports in the Mediterranean, the seaside city of Barcelona is known for its iconic architecture, colourful culture, and world-class drinking and dining.

Explore Antoni Gaudí’s surreal Sagrada Família, the famous boulevard of the Ramblas, the medieval Barri Gótic, and the Museu Picasso. But there’s even more to discover in this sprawling Spanish city, an MSC Mediterranean Cruises destination: from hidden tapas bars and fabulous food markets to Europe’s biggest football stadium.