France, Italy, Spain from Marseilles

A pleasant thing to do is simply sit down at one of the cafes overlooking the port of Marseilles and, sipping a Pastis, observe the landscape and the people who inhabit it. Also called the Porpoise City, Marseille is France’s sunniest town, charming with its gullies where you can swim, its history and culture and restaurants with cosmopolitan cuisine. You cannot leave without having first toured on the “Cours Julien”, the street for shopping. The port of Marseille is perhaps a typical tourist destination, but it deserves to be visited for the ferry that leaves from the Town Hall and the old church, which replaced a Templar building.

Above the port of Savona, the Priamar Fortress greets every departure and arrival of the Costa ships sailing in the Mediterranean. Genoa and its aquarium are nearby. The port of Savona, which you can explore during your cruise in Italy, is one of the prettiest of the Italian Riviera. The lovely climate, summers that are never to hot, mild winters and the exceptional beauty of the sea near the town makes Savona an excellent base to set out to explore Liguria. Savona is notable for the Priamar Fortress, which has dominated the town since the 16th century, and also for its historic centre where you can visit Savona Cathedral. A stop in Savona can also be an opportunity to visit the nearby city of Genoa and its narrow, picturesque streets, known as “caruggi”.

Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain with three million inhabitants, a dominating port in northern Mediterranean with one of the most renowned and important universities in the world. The city is a very rich commercial centre, where industrial operations crucial to the Spanish economy take place. In fact, Catalans have always considered their region unique compared with the other Spanish regions and we can find its roots in the power exercised by Barcelona for four hundred years at least on Spanish monarchy and on European commercial events.

In Spain there is only one place that does holidays, leisure, shopping and culture: Palma de Mallorca, where we stop on our Costa Cruise. Capital of the Balearic Islands, the port of Palma of Mallorca is the gateway to a city rich in art and history. As in all the islands of the archipelago, even here, tourists on a Balearic Islands cruise will find beautiful beaches, one of them is S'Arenal, but the old town is the true pearl of Palma. Shore excursions to the city can start from the Cathedral of Santa Maria di Palma, better known as La Seu and built on the foundations of the previous Arab mosque by the ultra-Catholic Aragonese people. One of the most interesting details of the cathedral is the canopy above the central altar, the work of Gaudi. A trip to Palma will also allow you to discover another famous personality in the art world: Joan Mirò. Near the artificial lake of Parc de la Mar you can see a beautiful mural he created in ceramic tiles, while in the gardens of the Orto del R…

The French island of Corsica, with a rich and sometimes turbulent history, is a land of enchanting landscapes and stunning beauty. A mild climate, with temperatures averaging 20°C, plus more than 2,700 hours of sunshine per year and an excellent cuisine, combine to make Corsica an increasingly popular tourist destination. Perhaps because of its harsh aspect, Corsica did not attract the attentions of some of the Mediterranean's ancient powers. Its location was removed from the routes of Spanish commerce and Saracen raids. It did gain the attention of the Genoese, however, who in the 1600s built a military outpost on the island, which was suitably situated for trade with Sardinia, the Middle East, Spain and North Africa. In some areas of Ajaccio, the ancient dialect used by Ligurian sailors can still be heard. Since its establishment Ajaccio, between Punta dell Parata in the north and Capo di Muro in the south, has developed into a busy commercial and passenger port. It is also renowned…

A pleasant thing to do is simply sit down at one of the cafes overlooking the port of Marseilles and, sipping a Pastis, observe the landscape and the people who inhabit it. Also called the Porpoise City, Marseille is France’s sunniest town, charming with its gullies where you can swim, its history and culture and restaurants with cosmopolitan cuisine. You cannot leave without having first toured on the “Cours Julien”, the street for shopping. The port of Marseille is perhaps a typical tourist destination, but it deserves to be visited for the ferry that leaves from the Town Hall and the old church, which replaced a Templar building.