For a number of good reasons, cruising is a favorite mode of travel for my partner Melinda (Mel) and me. We relish the idea of unpacking just once — and leaving the logistics, and the cooking, to someone else. Best of all, cruising offers an effective and efficient means of feeding our history habit.
We are heavy-duty history buffs, with this in mind, you’ll understand our enthusiasm as we boarded Viking Ocean Cruises’ new Viking Sea in Barcelona last February for a 14-day “Grand Mediterranean” voyage.
Almost completely enclosed by land and bordered by Europe, Africa, Asia Minor and the Levant, the Med is a vast intercontinental sea of almost a million square miles. As the most important route for merchants and travelers of ancient times, the history of the region is crucial to understanding the origins and development of much of the world.
Our two-week itinerary — virtually circling the western Med — led us to many of the region’s most notable historic sites, including some we definitely did not know.
Our voyage got underway in Barcelona, Spain’s second largest city and capital of the autonomous region of Catalonia. We skipped Viking’s excursion, choosing to explore afoot. As most visitors do, we rambled along Las Ramblas, the city’s famous milelong pedestrian way, absorbing the sights, scents and flavors of the sprawling Las Boqueria Market along the way. Later we visited a couple of masterpieces from the famed architect Antoni Gaudi — the towering La Sagrada Familia Cathedral and the glamorous 1888 mansion Palau Guell.
Cruising northeast along the coast of France, our first port of call was Toulon, an attractive little seaside city on the doorstep of Provence. Here we hopped aboard a coach for an included panoramic drive around and about the city. Then we spent the rest of the day wandering the waterfront promenade and yet another colorful marketplace where the daily harvests of neighboring Provence — artisan cheese, fruits and veggies of all kinds, aromatic lavender and herbs — were on bountiful display.
Day four found us docking in Monte Carlo, in the heart of the tiny Principality of Monaco — just as the sun began to rise over this most sparkling gem of the French Riviera. As an exclusive enclave of the rich and famous, it can seem a bit snooty to the typical visitor. But that could just be envy showing, as most of us only wish we had the means to take up residence in a cliffside villa here — with a garage for both the Rolls and the Ferrari.
At our next stop, Ajaccio, Corsica, we joined another included Viking excursion, a panoramic tour of Napoleon’s birthplace and its immediate surroundings. We went from one Napoleonic monument to the next and then trundled out along a condo-lined corniche to the Sanguinaires Islands for a look at a string of remarkably well-preserved 16th century Genovese observation towers. Back in Ajaccio, we visited the Baroque cathedral where Napoleon was christened and Casa Bonaparte, his ancestral home.
We docked next at Livorno, the port serving Florence and Pisa, Italy, where we opted to join an included tour to Pisa. It had been many years since we’d visited the famed Square of Miracles, so it was good once again to explore this marble-clad UNESCO World Heritage Site. Adorned with Byzantine mosaics, the interior of the cathedral seemed even more breathtaking than we remembered. The famous Leaning Tower of Pisa is still leaning, of course, as it has for its entire seven-century existence, but not as much as when we last saw it. Work has taken place in recent years to stabilize the old bell tower, reducing its lean to an angle of 4 degrees.
Following a short run from Livorno down to Civitavecchia, the unpronounceable port for Rome, we tied up for a two-day stay in the Eternal City. If one had never visited Rome, two days wouldn’t scratch the surface, but we’d explored its ancient buildings and monuments a number of times and so we opted to visit an historic site we’d long wanted to see — the Etruscan necropolises of Tarquinia.
Dating from the 7th to the 2nd centuries B.C., the numerous tombs with their decorative frescos chronicle the development of the Etruscan culture that thrived here well before the rise of the Roman Empire. Our four-hour optional excursion ($89 pp) allowed plenty of time to check out tombs that have been excavated at the Monterozzi Necropolis site. The tour concluded in the city of Tarquinia with a visit to the 15th century Palazzo Vitelleschi, whose galleries and cloistered courtyard display an extensive collection of sarcophagi and other artifacts recovered from the tombs.
Following the only day at sea on our two-week voyage (we slept in until mid-morning), Viking Sea docked beneath the honey-colored limestone walls of the St. Peter & Paul Bastion in Valletta, Malta.
They say Malta is the crossroads of the Mediterranean. If that’s the case, we can’t but wonder how we managed to miss it in spite of our many visits to the region. Travelers through the ages didn’t miss it, however, with occupiers of this strategic archipelago through the centuries including the Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Romans, Arabs, Knights of St. John, French and British.
But it was the Knights of St. John who founded Valletta, and we wanted to learn more about the soldiers of fortune who built this magnificent fortress city — a UNESCO World Heritage City — that is often described as a masterpiece of the Baroque.
Having just a day to spend in Valletta, we decided in advance of the voyage to arrange a guide. With the able assistance of the Malta Tourism Authority we linked up with veteran local guide Nick Ripard (nripard@go.net.mt) for a fast-paced walking tour.
Nick knows his stuff. As he showed us around the Auberge de Castille, an opulent Baroque palace that once served as home to the Castilian contingent of the Knights of the Order of St. John, he contends that the knights were not as noble and charitable as sometimes portrayed. “For the most part,” he said, “the knights, the majority of whom were lesser sons of European royalty, were far more greedy, vainglorious and self-aggrandizing than they were charitable.” Another myth exposed.
Sailing south now, bound for Tunis, we appreciated that this was the point where Viking’s itinerary really began breaking the Med cruise mold. North African destinations typically don’t show up on the Mediterranean menus of most major cruise lines. For us, Tunis turned out to be the big winner as best destination on this voyage.
We elected to join the optional “Best of Tunis” excursion ($114.00 pp) that led off with a stop at the Bardo National Museum where a fantastic collection of mosaics (said to be the best in the world) and other artifacts from Carthage are beautifully displayed in a 15th century palace. A living museum of sorts was next as we probed the city’s mazelike medina or souk — a bargainer’s paradise where some tour members claimed to have scored good deals on leather bags and gold jewelry. A cross-city coach trip led us next to Moorish-inspired Sidi Bou Said, a hilltop artists’ colony (and a popular haven for tourists) strikingly attired in blue and white. It reminded us of climbing the cobbled steps of Mykonos or Santorini.
Back to Africa, our call on Day 13 involved a rare cruise ship visit to Algiers, the capital and main port of Algeria. Security here was intense. From the moment we disembarked we were surrounded by policemen and soldiers and all tours were escorted by motorcycle cops and military vehicles. We couldn’t tell whether authorities were protecting us from the Algerian citizenry — or visa versa. At any rate it was a little tense and unnerving. No doubt Algeria is home to some nasty terrorists — but as is so often the case in such situations, the locals we met were very friendly and welcoming.
The unusually fine weather (for February) that had favored us throughout the voyage graced our final day in Valencia, Spain, with brilliant sunshine and temperatures in the mid 60s.
Steeped in 2,000 years of history and culture, Valencia boasts one of Europe’s largest and best-preserved Old Town neighborhoods — a diverse medley of cultural monuments, ancient buildings and broad plazas.
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