3 nights Eastern Mediterranean from Trieste (Venice)

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 anci…

From 2021, the city of Piraeus, one of the oldest ports in the world, will join the list of ports visited by MSC Mediterranean Cruises. Guests will be introduced to the treasures of Turkey and the Eastern Mediterranean. Piraeus, an MSC Mediterranean Cruises destination, has been the port of Athens since ancient times. It’s a city filled with incredible wonders including Mikrolimano Bay, Agia Triada (Church of the Holy Trinity), and the Archaeological Museum. Nowadays, Piraeus is a bustling centre with attractive waterfront cafés and restaurants, making it an ideal stop in the Mediterranean. Use it as a stepping stone to see the Acropolis and greater Athens.