Itinerary

 

Date	Day	Port	Arrive	Depart
September 14, 2012	Fri	Rome, Italy		7:00 PM
September 15, 2012	Sat	Sorrento, Italy	8:00 AM	6:00 PM
September 16, 2012	Sun	Taormina (Naxos), Italy	8:00 AM	6:00 PM
September 17, 2012	Mon	Valleta, Malta	8:00 AM	7:00 PM
September 18, 2012	Tue	Day at Sea
September 19, 2012	Wed	Corfu, Greece	8:00 AM	4:00 PM
September 20, 2012	Thu	Kotor, Montenegro	8:00 AM	6:00 PM
September 21, 2012	Fri	Dubrovnik, Croatia	8:00 AM	5:00 M
September 22, 2012	Sat	Venice, Italy	8:00 AM	5:00 PM
September 23, 2012	Sun	Venice Italy	2:00 PM

Pricing

 

Lail and Chef Mollie fares are currently at better than 2-for-1 fares. 

Suite Categories	Published Fares*	Lail and Mollie Fares (Cruise only)**
Owner’s 2 Suite	$46,895	$20,099
Grand 2 Suite*	$43,595	$18,599
Royal 2 Suite	$41,895	$17,899
Owner’s 1 Suite	$38,195	$16,199
Grand 1 Suite*	$33,195	$13,899
Royal 1 Suite	$31,495	$13,199
Silver Suite*	$29,895	$12,499
Midship Veranda Suite*	$17,395	$6,799
Veranda Suite*	$16,595	$6,499
Vista Suite*	$13,295	$4,999

*Fares are per person, based on double occupancy. Single and Triple rates available upon request. 

**airfare is additional

Port Descriptions

Rome is a heady blend of artistic and architectural masterpieces, classical ruins, and extravagant baroque churches and piazzas. The city’s 2,700-year history is on display wherever you look; the ancient rubs shoulders with the medieval, the modern runs into the Renaissance, and the result is a bustling open-air museum. Today Rome’s formidable legacy is kept alive by its people, their history knit into the fabric of their everyday lives. Raphaelesque teenage girls zip through traffic on their motorini; priests in flowing robes stride through medieval piazzas talking on cell phones. Modern Rome has one foot in the past, one in the present—a fascinating stance that allows you to tip back an espresso in a square designed by Bernini, then hop on the metro to your next attraction. 

Sorrento: As you journey down the fabled Amalfi Coast, the route takes you past rocky cliffs plunging into the sea and small boats lying in sandy coves like brightly colored fish. Erosion has contorted the rocks into shapes resembling figures from mythology and hollowed out fairy grottoes where the air is turquoise and the water an icy blue. White villages dripping with flowers nestle in coves or climb like vines up the steep, terraced hills. Lemon trees abound, loaded with blossom or fruit—and netting in winter to protect the fruit. The inhabitants jest that they look after their lemons better than their children. The road must have a thousand turns, each with a different view, on its dizzying 69-km (43-mi) journey from Sorrento to Salerno. Venture north, and you can fall under the spell of Pompeii’s silent streets, frozen in time under the dust of 25 centuries. 

Taormina: Sicily has beckoned seafaring wanderers since the trials of Odysseus were first sung in Homer’s Odyssey. Strategically poised between Europe and Africa, this mystical volcanic land has been a melting pot of every great civilization on the Mediterranean: Greek and Roman; then Arab and Norman; and finally French, Spanish, and Italian. Today Sicily fuses the remains of sackings past: graceful Byzantine mosaics rubbing elbows with Greek temples, Roman amphitheaters, Romanesque cathedrals, and baroque flights of fancy. Messina’s ancient history lists a series of disasters, but the city nevertheless managed to develop a fine university and a thriving cultural environment. On December 28, 1908, Messina changed from a flourishing metropolis of 120,000 to a heap of rubble, shaken to pieces by an earthquake that turned into a tidal wave and left 80,000 dead and the city almost completely leveled. For this reason there are few historical treasures but the town makes a good jumping off point for explorations of other treasures. 

Valleta, Malta: Hulking megalithic temples, ornate baroque churches, narrow old-world streets, and hilltop citadels are Malta’s human legacy. Dizzying limestone cliffs, sparkling seas, and charming rural landscapes make up its natural beauty. In its 7,000 years of human habitation, Malta has been overrun by every major Mediterranean power: Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Romans, Byzantines, and Arabs; Normans, Swabians, Angevins, Aragonese, and the Knights of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem; the French, the British, and now tourists. The islands’ history with the Knights of the Order of St. John has given them their lasting character. In 1565, when the forces of Süleyman the Magnificent laid siege here, with the faithful backing of the Maltese, the Knights sent the Turks packing. The Germans and Italians tried to take it in World War II—their air raids were devastating—but could not. The handsome limestone buildings and fortifications that the wealthy Knights left behind are all around the islands. 

Corfu is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea. It is the second largest of the Ionian Islands. The island is connected to the history of Greece from the beginning of Greek mythology. Its Greek name, Kerkyra or Korkyra, is related to two powerful water symbols: Poseidon, god of the sea, and Asopos, an important Greek mainland river. According to myth, Poseidon fell in love with the beautiful nymph Korkyra, daughter of Asopus and river nymph Metope, and abducted her. Poseidon brought Korkyra to the hitherto unnamed island and, in marital bliss, offered her name to the place: Korkyra. 

Kotor: Montenegro is a beautiful country with deep blue sea, crystal clear rivers, dense forests, and splendid lakes. Situated across the Adriatic from Italy, Montenegro is bordered on the south by Albania. Its other neighbours are the former Yugoslav republics of Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Serbia.  The Old Town of Kotor is one of the best-preserved medieval towns in this part of the Mediterranean. It has succeeded in maintaining its original form, typical of towns from the 12th to 14th centuries. A major earthquake in 1979 destroyed many historic buildings that have since been rebuilt.   In the Middle Ages, this natural harbour was an important artistic and commercial centre, with its own famous schools of masonry and iconography. These attributes, in addition to its architectural treasures, led to the inclusion of Kotor as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979. 

Commanding a splendid coastal location, Dubrovnik is one of the world’s most beautiful fortified cities. Its massive stone ramparts and splendid fortress towers curve around a tiny harbor, enclosing graduated ridges of sun-bleached orange-tiled roofs, copper domes, and elegant bell towers. In the 7th century AD, residents of the Roman city Epidaurum (now Cavtat) fled the Avars and Slavs of the north and founded a new settlement on a small rocky island, which they named Laus, and later Ragusa. On the mainland hillside opposite the island, the Slav settlement called Dubrovnik grew up. In the 12th century, the narrow channel separating the two settlements was filled in, and Ragusa and Dubrovnik became one. The city was surrounded by defensive walls during the 13th century, and these were reinforced with towers and bastions during the late 15th century. The city became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979. During the war for independence, it came under heavy siege, though thanks to careful restoration work, few traces of damage remain. Today Dubrovnik is once again a fashionable, high-class destination. 

Venice is a city in northern Italy known both for tourism and for industry, and is the capital of the region Veneto.  The name is derived from the ancient people of Veneti that inhabited the region as of 10th century B.C. The city historically was the capital of the Venetian Republic. Venice has been known as the “La Dominante”, “Serenissima”, “Queen of the Adriatic”, “City of Water”, “City of Masks”, “City of Bridges”, “The Floating City”, and “City of Canals”. Luigi Barzini, writing in The New York Times, described it as “undoubtedly the most beautiful city built by man”. Venice has also been described by the Times Online as being one of Europe’s most romantic cities.