21 nights, Civitavecchia (Rome) to Lisbon

The itinerary, port by port

17 calls over 21 nights, Civitavecchia (Rome) to Lisbon. 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
   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 →

4. 4
   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 →

5. 5
   Algiers

   Algiers is the white-tiered capital of Algeria, a city that stacks Ottoman-era alleys, French colonial boulevards, and a working Mediterranean harbor against steep hillsides. Port guide →

6. 6
   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 →

7. 7
   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 →

8. 8
   Tarragona

   Tarragona was Tarraco, capital of Roman Hispania, and it carries one of the densest concentrations of Roman remains in Spain, recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2000.

9. 9
   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 →

10. 10
    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 →

11. 11
    Casablanca

    Casablanca is Morocco's commercial capital, a big Atlantic port city whose case for the day rests almost entirely on one building: the Hassan II Mosque, one of the largest in the world, with a minaret… Port guide →

12. 12
    Agadir

    Agadir is Morocco's main Atlantic beach city, rebuilt on a modern grid after a 1960 earthquake leveled the old town. Port guide →

13. 13
    Arrecife (Lanzarote)

    Arrecife is the working capital of Lanzarote, the easternmost of the main Canary Islands, and the gateway to a volcanic landscape unlike anywhere else in Europe. Port guide →

14. 14
    San Sebastián de La Gomera

    San Sebastian is the small capital of La Gomera, the second-smallest Canary Island, and it is where Columbus took on water and supplies before the 1492 Atlantic crossing. Port guide →

15. 15
    Santa Cruz de La Palma

    Santa Cruz de La Palma is the capital of the greenest, least developed of the main Canary Islands, founded in 1493 and once the third busiest port in Europe behind Antwerp and Seville. Port guide →

16. 16
    Funchal (Madeira)

    Funchal is the capital of Madeira, a Portuguese volcanic island in the Atlantic, and the port sits a short walk from a working city built up a steep amphitheater of hills. Port guide →

17. Disembark
    Lisbon

    Lisbon spreads over hills above the wide Tagus estuary, and the cruise terminal sits at the foot of Alfama, the city's oldest quarter. Port guide →