19 nights, Civitavecchia (Rome) to Piraeus (Athens)
March 5, 2027 – March 25, 2027 · 19 nights · 16 stops
Explora's name for it: An Extended Journey Through Layers of Coast, Culture & Time
Nineteen nights, sixteen stops, and a clean west-to-east arc from Rome to Athens, threading Italy, France, Spain, Malta, and Greece. The first half is a gateway run: Civitavecchia for Rome, Livorno for Florence or Pisa, days defined by the transfer inland. Then the rhythm loosens. Cannes hands you a hilltop medieval quarter, Le Suquet, above the seafront, with a 15-minute ferry to the wild fortress island of Ile Sainte-Marguerite that most passengers never reach. Mahon rewards anyone on deck for the sail-in, several kilometers up one of the longest natural harbors in the world. Siracusa splits cleanly between the Greek theatre in Neapolis park and the sea-girt Baroque lanes of Ortigia, both walkable from the pier. The Greek finale stacks the Cyclades close: Mykonos, Patmos, and the caldera anchorage at Santorini.
This itinerary rewards the traveler who wants range over depth and does not mind that Rome, Florence, and Athens each cost a transfer day inland. If you want to settle into one region slowly, or you bristle at gateway ports that trade the harbor for a train, pick a shorter, tighter route. Tender ports at Mykonos, Patmos, and Santorini reward patience and an early start; the cable-car crush at Santorini is real when ships share the caldera.
EXPLORA II is all-suite and all-oceanfront. Send me your dates and the suite tier you are weighing, and I will have live pricing in your inbox within two hours.
The itinerary, port by port
16 calls over 19 nights, Civitavecchia (Rome) to Piraeus (Athens). 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 →
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 →
Livorno is a working Tuscan port, and for most travelers it is the gateway rather than the destination: about 80 km and 90 minutes inland lies Florence, the birthplace of the Renaissance, with Pisa roughly… Port guide →
Ajaccio is Corsica's capital and Napoleon's birthplace, a working Mediterranean port town wrapped around a palm-lined bay with a compact old quarter you can cross in fifteen minutes. Port guide →
Mahon sits at the head of one of the longest natural deep-water harbors in the world, and ships sail several kilometers up that inlet to reach the town, which is the approach itself worth being on deck for. Port guide →
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 →
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 →
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 →
La Spezia is a Ligurian port city at the head of the Gulf of Poets, best known as the mainland gateway to the Cinque Terre and Portovenere. Port guide →
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 →
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 →
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 →
Mykonos is a Cycladic island whose main town, Chora, is a whitewashed labyrinth of cube houses, blue domes, and bougainvillea pressed against the Aegean. Port guide →
Patmos is the small Dodecanese island where, by tradition, Saint John received the visions of the Book of Revelation, and that history sits compactly above the harbor town of Skala. Port guide →
Santorini is the rim of a flooded volcanic caldera, and ships anchor inside that drowned crater with the whitewashed towns of Fira and Oia stacked along the cliff edge above. Port guide →
Piraeus is the port of Athens, and the day belongs to the ancient city about 10 km inland. Port guide →
Fares on this departure, decoded
Reading the fare fine print is the job. Here's what this sailing currently carries:
Founders Fare
A founding-era fare on a selected set of sailings. Onboard credit where the offer applies.
Invitation to Discover More
Explora's discovery fare, available across most of the calendar. 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 →
Send me the dates and the suite tier you have in mind and I'll come back with a confirmed live number and my read on the sailing within two hours. Best available price, and I make it worth more.