Europe for Cruisers logo
Cruise Lines Cruise Reviews

Touring Europe by Ship:
Silver Whisper Mediterranean Cruise
Continued from page 1

Dubrovnik photo

ABOVE: Dubrovnik Old Town and harbor.

Athens-Rome Cruise Itinerary

Our cruise vacation began in Athens, Greece, where a night at the Atheneum Inter-Continental Hotel was included in Silversea's cruise-air package.

We took the hotel shuttle that evening to the Plaka, the oldest and most atmospheric section of modern Athens, and visited the Acropolis and the National Archaeological Museum of Athens the next morning. Silversea provided bus transportation from the hotel to Piraeus, the cruise and ferry port for Athens, where we boarded the Silver Whisper in mid-afternoon and sailed at 11 p.m.

Over the next twelve days, we visited:

Monemvasia (Monemvassia), nicknamed "the Gibraltar of Greece" because the fortified old town is built on a massive rock. From Monemvasia, Silversea offered a shore excursion to Mistras (a.k.a. Mistra or Mystra), the most important and best-preserved Byzantine ruins in Greece.

Katakolon, the port closest to the ruins of Olympia, site of the Olympic Games from 766 B.C. through the 5th Century B.C.

Itea, which was just a short drive through Greece's most extensive olive orchards to the hillside ruins of Delphi. Then we relaxed with a day at sea before spending two days in:

Venice, where we could walk to the Piazzale Roma from the cruise terminal or take Silversea's free shuttle boat to San Marco. (See our Venice for Visitors site for more than 1,000 pages of Venice travel information and photos.) After that, we spent a day cruising along the Dalmatian Coast to the Croatian port of:

Dubrovnik (see photo above), where the walled Old Town has been almost completely restored with US$25 million in UNESCO aid following its bombardment by Serbian artillery in 1991.

Corfu, "the green island," located in the Ionian Sea off the western coast of the Greek mainland.

Taormina, an attractive resort village perched on a mountainside along Sicily's eastern coast, within easy reach of Mt. Etna National Park.

Sorrento, on the Bay of Naples, where Silversea offered shore excursions to Capri, Pompeii, and the Amalfi Coast. (We ended up landing in Naples instead when high seas off Sorrento made it unsafe to go ashore by launch.)

The cruise ended in Civitavecchia, the port for Rome, where we took a Silversea bus to Fiumicino Airport. (Some passengers headed to Rome for independent travel or Silversea's optional post-cruise hotel program.)

Note: Every Silversea cruise itinerary is different, with some cruises being short (7 to 9 days) and a few lasting two weeks or longer. Study the calendar on the Silversea Cruises Web site to find a cruise length and port itinerary that appeal to you. In the Mediterranean region alone, you'll find dozens of tempting ports on a typical year's cruise calendar--from large cities such as Barcelona, Marseille, and Istanbul to small ports like Valletta (Malta), Alghero (Sardinia), and St. Tropez (France).

Page 3 - The Silver Whisper


In this article:  
Introduction Activities, entertainment
Cruise itinerary Shore excursions
The Silver Whisper Memorable moments
Accommodations Is Silversea for you?
Food and drink Web links

More about the Silver Whisper and Silversea Cruises:
Silversea Cruises: "Scotland's Tattoo"
Silver Whisper Photos 2002
Silver Whisper Photos 2003