3 nights, Marseille to Civitavecchia (Rome)

Three nights, five ports, no sea days. This is a dense west-to-east run down the Ligurian coast, Marseille to Rome, and the pace is the headline: you wake somewhere new every morning. The strong calls come early. Marseille rewards the day through the Vieux Port and the Panier quarter above it, though the terminal at Mourepiane sits 5 to 6 miles out, so take the shuttle to Joliette and cross the harbor by municipal ferry rather than walking the loop on foot. Genoa is the easiest of the lot: the terminal sits at the foot of the city, a flat ten to fifteen minute walk to the Porto Antico and the UNESCO-listed palaces of Via Garibaldi. Villefranche-sur-Mer is the one to control yourself, a tender port that lands you in the old town with a train station a short walk along the bay, putting Nice and Monaco a few minutes' ride away.

Be honest about what the back half is. Livorno and Civitavecchia are gateways, not destinations: the day is the transfer, roughly 90 minutes inland to Florence, about 45 to 60 minutes by regional train to Rome. If you want to feel a city rather than queue for the David or the Colosseum on a tight clock, this dense format will frustrate you. It rewards repeat travelers who already know these places and want a moving sampler, not first-timers hoping to do Florence and Rome justice in single days.

EXPLORA II is all-suite and all-oceanfront. Send me your dates and the suite tier you're weighing.