Izzy has recently been on an NCL cruise around the Mediterranean and shares with us here a few of her most memorable experiences and photos.

I was lucky enough to be able to experience a Mediterranean cruise in August on the Norwegian Epic and just wanted to share a little about my time away.

We arrived at the port of Civitavecchia the day before our cruise was to depart and is a good tip for anyone travelling to do, there are some lovely hotels there and we stayed at Hotel San Giorgio who offer transfers right to the ship check in building which was very handy.

Boarding was very easy as once you are checked in you are called in time slots to board the ship, once onboard you can go and enjoy a nice lunch at one of the may restaurants on board and await the sailing away party.  You go through a safety briefing once everyone is on the ship then it is time to relax and enjoy the entertainment and things on the ship.

There are a number of restaurants – some fine dining options and more casual options as well, lots of entertainment during the day and evenings, a spa, pools and slides for the kids as well as an adult only area to swim also.

Our first port was Santorini and that has always been somewhere I wanted to travel to and it was just stunning, lots of little streets and alley ways to explore and cafes to eat at.  I did an ATV tour of the island, and I would highly recommend it, we went to off the beaten track roads and seen some beautiful beach along the way.

Next port was Athens and seeing all the ruins was just mind blowing when you think they didn’t have big cranes and diggers to help erect them back when they were built.  The food at the local restaurants was very good and reasonably priced also, I loved that it was all home made and you could see that a lot of the restaurants were still run by multi-generational families.

Another port we stopped at was Mykonos – this place is truly beautiful. I could have happily stayed a few days here exploring.  I chose to do a food walking tour and would recommend this. It was just myself and a local guide and she took me to the most amazing cafes where I got to experience the cuisine of the island all while explaining the history of Mykonos.  I got to see the windmill houses and posted a letter to my grandson from the local shop/post office.

Every port we went to had the most amazing experiences on offer to try so there was something for everyone. 

We had our last port of call in Livorno, Florence and again I got to tick another bucket list item off  by going to the  Leaning Tower of Pisa getting to climb up it and see the views from the top -  I did this on a tour which picked you up from the ship then bused us to the tower giving us 2 hours to look around at our leisure.  From there we were taken back to the town of Livorno and we spent the next few hours sampling the most amazing pasta dishes I have tasted before heading back to the ship.

I really enjoyed my time on this cruise, it is a big ship but there is plenty of space to get away if you wanted to for a quiet moment.