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EXPLORA II · Mediterranean & Western Europe

19 nights, Civitavecchia (Rome) to Barcelona

January 4, 2027 – January 24, 2027 · 19 nights · 14 stops

Explora's name for it: An Extended Journey Between Continents & Coastlines

Nineteen nights, fourteen stops, one direction: Rome to Barcelona, with no day repeated. The route reads as a slow southern loop, Italy down through Sicily and Malta, a reach across to Tunisia and Morocco, then up the Spanish coast. The pace is generous. Most calls drop you near the old town on foot. In Siracusa you dock right on Ortigia, a short walk from Piazza Duomo, with the ancient Neapolis park and its hillside Greek theatre across on the mainland. Valletta rises straight from Grand Harbour, the Barrakka Lift carrying you up the bastion wall in under a minute to Caravaggio's largest painting in the cathedral. Amalfi is a tender call into a ravine town where the cathedral steps and stepped lanes start a one-minute walk from the pier. Palermo, Cagliari, Málaga, and Tangier all put their fortresses and markets inside a walkable radius of the berth.

This sailing rewards a traveler who wants depth across the western Mediterranean and the patience for nineteen nights of it. The character shifts hard, from Baroque Sicily to a Moroccan medina to the Costa del Sol, so the variety is the point. Skip it if you want a tight, single-country trip, or if gateway ports test you: Rome and Barcelona sit well outside their harbors and cost you transfer time on both ends.

Explora II is all-suite, all-oceanfront.

Civitavecchia (Rome) (open port guide)Civitavecchia (Rome)Naples (open port guide)Siracusa (Sicily) (open port guide)Bari (open port guide)La Valletta (open port guide)La Goulette (Tunis) (open port guide)Palermo (Sicily) (open port guide)Amalfi (open port guide)Cagliari (Sardinia) (open port guide)Cartagena (open port guide)Málaga (open port guide)Tangier (open port guide)Alicante (open port guide)Barcelona (open port guide)Barcelona

The itinerary, port by port

14 calls over 19 nights, Civitavecchia (Rome) to Barcelona. Open any port for my full day-ashore guide, what to see, when to go, and how the day actually runs.

Getting there: Flights to Civitavecchia (Rome) (FCO) are already bookable for these dates. I watch the fare for booked clients so you book at the right moment. When to book your flights →

  1. Embark
    Civitavecchia (Rome)

    Civitavecchia is Rome's deepwater port, a working harbor about 80 km northwest of the capital, and for most travelers it is the gateway rather than the destination. Port guide →

  2. 2
    Naples

    Naples is a dense, loud, deeply layered Italian city where the cruise terminal sits at the foot of the historic center rather than out in an industrial port. Port guide →

  3. 3
    Siracusa (Sicily)

    Syracuse was once the most powerful Greek city in the western Mediterranean, a rival to Athens, and the day splits cleanly between its two halves: the ancient Neapolis park on the mainland, with a Greek… Port guide →

  4. 4
    Bari

    Bari is the capital of Puglia, the heel of Italy, and its old town is a tight medieval maze pressed against the Adriatic. Port guide →

  5. 5
    La Valletta

    Valletta is the fortified 16th-century capital the Knights of St John built on a peninsula above Grand Harbour, one of the deepest natural harbors in the Mediterranean. Port guide →

  6. 6
    La Goulette (Tunis)

    La Goulette is the port town at the mouth of the Lake of Tunis, and it is the gateway to ancient Carthage, the medina of Tunis, and the blue-and-white cliff village of Sidi Bou Said. Port guide →

  7. 7
    Palermo (Sicily)

    Palermo is Sicily's capital, a layered city where Norman, Arab, Byzantine, and Baroque builders all left their mark on the same streets. Port guide →

  8. 8
    Amalfi

    Amalfi is the namesake town of the Amalfi Coast, a former maritime republic wedged into a ravine where the mountains drop straight to the Gulf of Salerno. Port guide →

  9. 9
    Cagliari (Sardinia)

    Cagliari is the capital of Sardinia, a layered Italian port city where a medieval hilltop citadel, the Castello, looks down over the harbor and the arcaded Via Roma runs right along the waterfront. Port guide →

  10. 10
    Cartagena

    Cartagena is Colombia's old Caribbean fortress city, a UNESCO-listed walled town of balconied colonial houses, plazas, and the largest Spanish fort built in the Americas. Port guide →

  11. 11
    Málaga

    Málaga is the working capital of the Costa del Sol and the birthplace of Picasso, and its old town packs a Moorish hilltop fortress, a 1st-century BC Roman theater, and an unfinished Renaissance cathedral… Port guide →

  12. 12
    Tangier

    Tangier sits where the Mediterranean meets the Atlantic at the Strait of Gibraltar, a Moroccan port city with a walled medina, a hilltop kasbah, and a long history as an international crossroads. Port guide →

  13. 13
    Alicante

    Alicante is a working Costa Blanca city that puts a hilltop Moorish fortress, a marble seafront promenade, and a maze-like medieval quarter inside a single walkable radius from the cruise pier. Port guide →

  14. Disembark
    Barcelona

    Barcelona packs Gaudí's modernisme, a 2,000-year-old Roman and medieval core, and a working Mediterranean waterfront into a single dense, walkable city. Port guide →

Fares on this departure, decoded

Reading the fare fine print is the job. Here's what this sailing currently carries:

Invitation to Discover More
Explora's discovery fare, available across most of the calendar. Onboard credit where the offer applies.
Founders Fare
A founding-era fare on a selected set of sailings. Onboard credit where the offer applies.
Air-Inclusive Fare
A fare that folds airfare into the voyage price on a smaller set of sailings.

The ship and your suite

This sailing is aboard EXPLORA II, all-suite, every suite with a private ocean-front terrace. Suites run from the entry Ocean Terrace to the Owner's Residence; the right tier depends on how you travel. Compare suites → · What's included →


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