A Country Girl in Italy: Mediterranean Cruise

In 2024 I went on a seven day Mediterranean cruise with my husband James and my mom. We started and ended the cruise in Rome, Italy, and visited the following cities in between:

Savona, Italy
Marseille, France
Barcelona, Spain
Palma de Mallorca, Spain
Palermo, Sicily

We had one day at sea before reaching Palermo.

Here are my blog posts about each city:

Savona, Italy

Marseille, France

Barcelona, Spain

Palma de Mallorca, Spain

Palermo, Sicily, Italy

Our cruise was provided by Costa Cruises and we traveled on the Costa Smeralda. It was a huge cruise ship, 20 decks high. Our cabins were on the 9th and 10th floors. We were both in balcony cabins, and they were very nice and had plenty of space, despite being a cruise ship. Our bathrooms were modern and our beds comfortable.

The Costa Smeralda behind us at the dock in Civitavecchia, Italy

my mom's cabin on the 10th floor

our cabin on the 9th floor

walking deck 17 where the water slide was located

view from the ship of Civitavecchia

the water slide on deck 17

Costa is owned by Carnival, so we thought the cruise would be the same as a Carnival Cruise. There were some distinct differences, the main one being the food. We were used to being able to eat whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted. On the Costa cruise, meals were during certain hours and at specific places. If we wanted to eat during off-times, we had to pay for our meals at the pizza restaurant or gelato shop. Our dinner was assigned each night at 6:30 at La Colombina at a specific table each night. We had the same waiter every night but one. The same people sat around us every night. We became friends with the couples sitting near us. One was from Switzerland and the other lived in California, although they were originally from Russia. Our waiter spoke 7 languages, which I'm sure came in very handy working on a Mediterranean cruise! The attendants who helped him serve us paid attention to what we liked, and within a couple days into the cruise we would arrive with things he knew we liked already on our table, such as butter, and oil & vinegar.

The food looked amazing -- each plate an absolute masterpiece, as if they had spent a great deal of time on every single plate. It was not the type of food that we are used to in Wyoming, though. One night we asked our waiter what beef tartare was, and he told us, although we must have missed it when he said the beef would be raw... He ended up taking back mostly-full plates from all three of us. By the end of the week he could easily tell us, "you won't like that." And my mom would ask him by the end of the week, "what will I like?" This country girl definitely liked the food better on the Carnival Cruise, but we were almost the only Americans on the cruise, so they were definitely catering to the majority of their guests. One night all of the children received hamburgers from the kids' menu. My husband asked our waiter if he could have a hamburger off the kids' menu. The waiter said no, and then with a twinkle in his eye said, "then everyone will want one!" We did want a good old American hamburger! In fact, as soon as we arrived back home the first thing we did was head to Arby's, and I don't think my roast beef sandwich and curly fries have ever tasted so good!

We heard many languages all week long on the cruise. It was unusual to ever hear English while on the ship, unless someone was talking directly to us. Somehow they always knew that we were from America and they should speak English to us. The young man from the Philippines who cleaned our room every day was very polite and very kind to us. On the last day of our cruise he left us a bear made of towels, sitting on a heart on our bed. A couple days before our cruises ended we found a note on our bed talking about a train strike that was taking place the day our cruise ended. I was very concerned about how we would get to Rome from Civitavecchia, over an hour by car or train. He tried to be helpful, and was understanding as we were stressed about the situation. He did a great job cleaning our room also.

The cruise itself was affordable, but as with any cruise, the additions make a cruise much more pricey. One key addition was internet access. In order to use the internet while on ship we each had to pay for an internet package (we couldn't share one) at about 100 euro each. Another thing that costs extra on a cruise is drinks - not only alcoholic drinks, but soda as well. We opted to just drink water, although at times we were charged for the water as well. We could have just carried around a water bottle all the time and filled it up in our room (the water dispensers in the dining rooms specifically say not to fill up water bottles there). At breakfast we were able to drink juice in very small cups, which we took full advantage of, but most of the time we drank water the entire week. Photography is another way to increase spending on a cruise, although I wasn't very impressed with many of our photos and only purchased one of them.

Excursions are, of course, the main expense that can be added on to a cruise. We opted to pay for one excursion (in Marseille), and for a hop-on-hop-off bus in two cities (Barcelona and Palma de Mallorca), but in Savona and Palermo we planned our own day and didn't pay for an excursion. If I were to do the cruise again, I would again pay for a cruise in Marseille because the destinations are too far apart to walk between them. I would still buy a hop-on-hop-off bus ride in Palma, because it is also too spread out to walk between the sites. I would not buy the hop-on-hop-off bus ride in Barcelona again. The route only went to a couple of the places that I wanted to see, so we ended up paying for taxis or walking everywhere, and only rode the bus between Sagrada Familia and Park Guell, and not anywhere else.

I enjoyed listening to all the different languages and seeing the many different ethnicities on the cruise. We witnessed two older women shouting at each other in Spanish and shoving each other on the elevator. We saw many children and families on this cruise, something that was quite different from Carnival, where it is mostly adults on the cruise. We also saw several parents with disabled adult children on the cruise with them. One of my favorite memories from the cruise was on the night we all dressed up for dinner, seeing a mother push her adult daughter in her wheelchair onto the elevator. They were both dressed up beautifully in fancy dresses and with their hair done. I was impressed by the parents on the cruise, those caring for adult disabled children as well as those patiently caring for small children. There was one little boy who was quite a handful each night at dinner and we watched with a smile as his parents took turns chasing him each time he escaped from their table.

The entertainment provided on the cruise was mostly live singing, dancing, or acrobatics. There was a theater with a huge screen, and I would have loved to watch a movie in there. But they didn't ever show a movie, they only have live entertainment every night. I thought it was interesting that most of the music they danced to was in English - yet whenever the entertainers spoke, it was usually in Italian.

Since the seven day cruise went in a circular route from Rome to Savona to Marseille to Barcelona to Palma de Mallorca to Palermo and back to Rome, over and over again, the guests began and ended their cruise at all different cities. Many, like us, began and ended in Rome. But others began and ended in Marseille, and so on. It was interesting to see the slight cultural shift each night at dinner as some of the guests would have left, and new ones would have arrived.

I doubt I will go on another Mediterranean Cruise, but I do highly recommend going on one once in your lifetime. Expect to be one of the only Americans there. Expect beautiful food that is not catered to Americans, as to be expected in the Mediterranean, and maybe you'll be more adventurous than I am. Take the time to talk to the people around you and get to know them. We became great friends with the Russian couple who shared a table with us. It was interesting to hear how different our perspectives were about the same experiences. For instance, Palermo was my favorite destination of the cruise. But it was our Russian friends' least favorite destination. Additionally, she remarked repeatedly on how much she loved the food. The food was perhaps my least favorite part of the cruise. But all the differences in the world make live more interesting and rich! Expect to hear many beautiful languages and just enjoy the experience!

Here are some helpful links for planning a Mediterranean Cruise:

Costa Cruises Mediterranean website

Vacations to Go is who we booked our Costa Cruise through

Excursions