Cobblestone & Colosseum – Athens, Barcelona & Marseille

About this cruise

Somewhere around day five the ship stops being transport and starts being home. This 21-night sailing from Civitavecchia (Rome) on June 25, 2028 visits Naples, Palermo and Souda (Chania), with additional stops along the Western Mediterranean. There's a stretch of back-to-back port days, so those days are busy, but the sea days around them give you time to recharge. The route threads through 6 countries along the Western Mediterranean coast: Italy, Greece, Türkiye, Montenegro, Spain and France. Most ports give you about 11 hours, so you can do more than just tick off the main sights. As for the ship itself, Sun Princess (2024) is one of the newer ships out there, with current design and recent tech throughout. 21 nights is long enough to build a routine on board: favourite restaurant, favourite deck chair, favourite people. It starts to feel like a floating village. It's peak season, so the weather is at its best and the ship will be full. That's part of the fun. 21 nights of not thinking about anything except where to eat next. That's the pitch.