4/8/25
This section of our 2025 World Cruise plan was to include additional parts of the Mediterranean Sea and then the Adriatic. The Adriatic Sea is a, approximately 800km long and 200 km wide, arm of the Mediterranean Sea located between the Italian Peninsula and the Balkan Islands. It is known for its high biodiversity, over 1,000 islands, and exceptional water clarity (up to 56 meters). Key countries bordering the sea include Italy, Croatia, Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Slovenia.
Unfortunately the Adriatic weather conditions were not cooperating and our Island Princess Captain had to call an audible, for safety reasons, as we could not dock at the the planned ports of Dubrovnik,Croatia and Bar, Montenegro. Disappointing to miss these stops but safety is always the prudent decision at sea. Instead we head towards the western Coast of Italy…
4/8/25: Taranto, Italy…
We awoke to windy, cold weather, but were able to dock and eventually head in to visit the old town of Taranto, Italy. This is a short dock day though this port doesn’t need much more time than that. It is not high season here yet so many places are not open. We make our way out of the port area and over the bridge. Our plan was to tourist walk some of the city and then make a stop at Costello Aragonese (castle). The Castello Aragonese is a fortification in Taranto, Italy. Officially called the Castel San Angelo, it was built on the site of older fortifications dating to Greek occupation in the third and fourth centuries BC. The present fortress was built for the then-king of Naples, Ferdinand II of Aragon in 1496 to reinforce the naturally low-lying link between the old town of Taranto on a peninsula, and the mainland. The seven-towered design is attributed to Francesco di Giorgio Martini of Siena. Since 1883 the fort has been occupied by the Italian Navy. Beginning in 2003 the Navy began restoration and archeological work on the site, removing plasterwork and investigating fortification work dating back to the Byzantine era. Today the Castle is more of a museum housing artifacts from excavations of the area.
After spending time touring the castle’s grounds we decide to explore some of the adjacent areas of “Old town: and stumble upon a very cool Cathedral (Cathedral di San Cataldo). It is open so we do walk through and it is well worth the effort to find it.
Next we cross the bridge over into New Town and enjoy the walk along shopping district. Beautiful little shops and not very crowded this time of year. We don’t spend a lot of time here as it is cold and windy so we make our way back across the bridge to old town for another stroll taking a different way back to the ship along the water. The shops and cafe’s are now open however it is not as nice as some of the other places we have been so we head back to the ship for a bit to eat and a drink.
4/9/25
Valletta, Malta
When Joanne wakes up early to the first views of Valletta we immediate realize how beautiful this port is! There are two forts that are visible as we pull into the harbor to dock. We are docked right across from Old Town where all the action seems to be! Because we dock late this morning (just before noon) the captain says over the loudspeaker that the changing of the guards/canon will go off at noon (in 5 minutes!). So we head onto the balcony to watch. That is our first glimpse of what our day will be like! Today looks spectacular for weather, with brilliant sunshine, and very little wind. Though a lot of our on-board people plan to do the HOHO bus we can see that everything we want to do is totally walkable from the ship. We have our list and off we go!
We head to the right, out of the pier/terminal, and then turn back to go up the hill. Soon we find ourselves in Upper Barracca Gardens and right below it is the Saluting Battery (where the canon went off). From here we have an excellent view of our ship and the Grand Harbor. Next we find our way to St. John’s Cathedral. There is a line to get tickets and enter, but it moves fairly quickly. I think the cost for senior tickets was $12 euro each and it was amazing! The history and artwork in the cathedral is amazing. An audio tour came with the tickets and we ended up spending about 2 1/2 hours in the cathedral. This is a must see!
As we make our way down “Republic Street” full of shops, cafe’s and all kinds of ancient, historical buildings, we arrive at The Grand Master’s Palace. This is the former residence of the Grand Masters of the Knights of St. John and is now the office of the president of Malta. The tour was good and the Palace Armory was impressive.
Because we didn’t dock until noon, it is now late afternoon and getting chilly outside. We put our jackets on and in walking back along the shops and cafe’s we come across our UK friends from Isle of Man Dee and Peter along with another couple from the ship as they were sitting enjoying happy hour. Of course we had to sit and order a beverage too.We decide to catch the elevator back down to the main level where the ship is docked this time rather than walking the long way down…
As it is pretty late to begin dressing for the Main Dining room, we just head up to the buffet for a few bites, grab some glasses of wine and head to the stateroom where we gather some blankets and sit on the balcony. We have a beautiful view of the city lit up and as we begin sail out we talk about how lucky we are to be able to travel like this. The sail out is amazing with all the lights of the city on.
One of the high points of our visit to Malta was our evening departure. Cruising out of the Malta Harbor was one of our best moments on our balcony besides the evening sail out of Sydney. Beautiful!!!!
Friday 4/11/25
Civitavecchia, Italy
This port of Civitavecchia, Italy is where a many people bus for the day into Rome. Since we have already visited Rome previososy there we decide to just stay in our port city a walk the re. We have started using CHATGBT. And GPS MyCity to help plan some of our city visits. This is working out pretty well and that’s what we use to plan our day today.
We decide to walk out of the port instead of taking the shuttle and we are happy we did this. It’s not far and we walk right into the Forte Michelangelo. This is a pretty impressive fort but can’t go inside; it’s still being used. This begins the promenade and we stroll along the water for a bit then venture into the city proper. If we had realized then we should have turned left and continue walking along the port where we would have stumbled on the “Fountain of Vanvitelli.” which we ultimately visited last, on the way back to the ship, so we had to do a little backtracking. No worries. It is pretty cool but no water any longer.
We actually used a great city map on Joanne found on Pinterest marking most of the important things to see in Civitavecchia and that worked well for the day!
Our walk included the Statue of the Kiss “unconditional surrender” from WWII, walking through The Ghetto District and finally the San Lorenzo Market with fresh fruits / vegetables / fish. We also wandered through The Civitavecchia Cathedral and a few other churches.
We found that just wandering through the city was very interesting and fun. On the way back we continued to the right along the waterfront and came across many cafe’s and eateries where people were enjoying lunch with some wine or beer.
Although it was a pretty laid back day off the ship we enjoyed it and the weather cooperated for us!
Saturday April 12, 2025
Ajaccio (Corsica) France:
Corsica, Another small, manageable city and our first stop in France… Once off the ship and into town we were able to pick up a city map at a tourist info center right away. The girl was very helpful and circled the important things to do see. This is the birthplace of Napoleon Bonaparte so most of the touristy things to see are regarding that. We begin heading left along the main road and get to the Cathedral first for some photo’s. Then we head to the Citadel. The Citadel isn’t much but it looks impressive from the outside. Right after that a very nice promenade along the water begins and it is a lovely walk for quite a bit. Then we begin to look for the statue of Napoleon Bonaparte. We really feel one day is good here and we certainly enjoyed the walking, vendor area, and history of the birthplace of Napoleon.
We have enjoyed our continuing cruising of the Mediterranean Sea… So many countries, ports, and ton’s of history! At this pace it’s hard not to get confused by what we saw where… Nonetheless it continues to be an incredible journey aboard the Island Princess…
Next Stop more of Italy….
