7 Night cruise sailing roundtrip from Genoa onboard MSC Divina.

Inspired by Sophia Loren, MSC Divina brings you all the elegance and glamour of the golden age of cruise lines in an ecological new way. On board you’ll find every modern comfort, a variety of sports, leisure facilities and world-class entertainment, including Kids and Teen Clubs to ensure everyone’s happy.
With style, luxury and attention to detail, the MSC Divina boasts a real stone piazza, a Casino Veneziano and Broadway-size Pantheon Theatre. From the elegant Swarovski crystal staircases to the Infinity Pool extending seamlessly out to sea, the MSC Divina is undeniably glamorous.

Discover the exclusive ship-within-a-ship that is MSC Yacht Club, with its butler service, specially-commissioned works of art and Sophia Loren Royal Suite on deck 16, designed for and with the help of Mrs Loren herself, there are stunning photographs of her most memorable roles and even a replica of her dressing table so guests can prepare themselves in style.

A wealth of professional massages and wellness treatments await in the enticing MSC Aurea Spa as well as the sun-soaked Top 18 with its premium deck space, stunning sea views, dedicated spa service and bar menu with complimentary fruit skewers.

With so much variety, every day of your cruise will take you on a new voyage of discovery, cruising aboard MSC Divina, living in the Mediterranean style and enjoying every moment to the full as you voyage to the most beautiful places on earth across the seas.

Highlights of this cruise:

Livorno, Italy
Upon reaching the port of Livorno (Leghorn) during an MSC cruise in the Mediterranean, you will find a lively town with a glorious past; its name it thought to derive from liburna, an ancient Roman vessel.

Boasting some historical monuments – Old Fortress, New Fortress, Marzocco Tower – that have survived Fascist demolitions and Allied bombings, the city is a good starting point for a discovery tour of the Tuscan food and wine culture: fruits, vegetables, typical dishes of the traditional sea and land cuisines and, of course, wines such as Chianti and Brunello di Montalcino, a wine of great regional importance. One of the excursions proposed by MSC Cruises will take you to Florence, the cradle of the Renaissance. Along its streets strolled great artists and writers such as Dante, Brunelleschi and Donatello, among others. Let yourself be enchanted by the beauty of its historical buildings, such as the Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore (the Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Flower or Duomo), a clear example of Gothic art with its pink, white and green marble exterior and an interior decorated with frescoes by Giorgio Vasari. The Uffizi Gallery, on the other hand, is one of the most important museums in the world, housing masterpieces by Botticelli, Michelangelo, Raffaello and Tiziano, to name a few. It is impossible not to be enchanted by the magic of Ponte Vecchio (the Old Bridge), the majesty of Piazza della Signoria and the elegance of the Basilica di Santa Croce (Basilica of the Holy Cross). Another excursion is dedicated to Pisa, the birth city of Galileo Galilei. The city is famous for its Tower, a leaning bell tower of white stone facing Piazza dei Miracoli, which also hosts the Cathedral and Baptistery.

The former was designed by the architects Buscheto and Rainaldo and completed at the end of the 12th century, while construction of the latter began in the second half of the 12th century. Its architectural lines are similar to those of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.

Genoa, Italy
Genoa is a city and a seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria.Famous as the birthplace of Christopher Columbus, Genoa remains a bustling seaport. The city's Renaissance heritage is preserved in splendid palaces overlooking the harbor.

The Old Quarter of Genoa, is especially enthralling for those who like to explore. It is best to travel on foot through the narrow streets (called carruggi) which are meticulously kept, as are the expansive palazzi (mansions) of medieval merchants which line them. Around the Palazzo Reale, many shops sell Turkish carpets and the best of silk.

Other attractions in Genoa include the Palazzo Ducale now used for exhibitions and concerts, the Via Garibaldi art gallery and the original waterfront or Porto Antico. The waterfront is also full of atmosphere and there are many bars and restaurants where one can watch the world go by. The 16th century lighthouse, the Lanterna, which rises over 120 meters (325 steps!) above the sea, can be seen 50 kilometers away, and has guided mariners to the port for 100s of years.

Marseille, France
When cruising southern France, you have to know that Marseille is the most renowned and populated metropolitan area in the country after Paris and Lyon. When you alight from your MSC cruise ship, the cafés around the Vieux Port, where glistening fish are sold straight off the boats on quai des Belges, are wonderful spots to observe the city’s street life.

Particularly good in the afternoon is the north (Le Panier) side, where the terraces are sunnier and the views better. The best view of the Vieux Port is from the Palais du Pharo, on the headland beyond Fort St-Nicolas, or, for a wider angle, from Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde, the city’s Second Empire landmark atop the La Garde hill. To the north of the Vieux Port is the oldest part of Marseille, Le Panier, where, up until the last war, tiny streets, steep steps Mediterranean introduction and houses of every era formed a vieille ville typical of the Côte.

You can enjoy many MSC cruise excursions from the Vieux Port. Were it not for the great metropolis of Marseille, just 30 km south, Aix-en-Provence would be the dominant city of central Provence. Aix is more immediately attractive, a stately and in parts pretty place that’s traditionally seen as conservative.

Capital of the Catholic Church during the early Middle Ages and for centuries a major artistic centre, Avignon remains another unmissable excursion. Low medieval walls still encircle Avignon’s old centre, as it nestles up against a ninety-degree bend in the Rhône river. Their gates and towers restored, the ramparts dramatically mark the historic core off from the formless sprawl of the modern city beyond.

Barcelona, Spain
Barcelona – Spain’s second city, and the self-confident capital and port of Catalunya – vibrates with life, and there’s certainly not another city in the country to touch it for sheer style, looks or energy.

A cruise excursion to Barcelona city centre will take you to discover its world-class art museums and its fashionable designer restaurants, bars, galleries and shops. And in Antoni Gaudí’s extraordinary church of the Sagrada Família and the world-famous boulevard that is the Ramblas, you have two sights that are high up on any Mediterranean cruise sightseeing list.

A holiday in Barcelona can start with the Ramblas, and then dive straight into the medieval nucleus of the city, the Barri Gòtic. But there are plenty of other central old-town neighbourhoods to explore too, from La Ribera – home to the celebrated Museu Picasso – to funky El Raval, where cool bars, restaurants and boutiques have mushroomed in the wake of the striking contemporary art museum, MACBA.

Even if you think you know these heavily touristed neighbourhoods well, there’s always something else to discover during an MSC excursion – tapas bars hidden down alleys little changed for a century or two, designer boutiques in renovated old-town quarters, bargain lunches in workers’ taverns, unmarked gourmet restaurants, craft outlets and workshops, fin-de-siècle cafés, restored medieval palaces and neighbourhood markets.

On Passeig de Gràcia there is Gaudí’s Casa Batlló, designed for the industrialist Josep Batlló: the stone facade hangs in folds, like skin, while on the rooftop sprout the celebrated mosaic chimneys and a little tower topped with a three-dimensional cross.

The mountain of Montserrat stands just 40km northwest of Barcelona and it’s a popular trip out from the city. Once there, you can visit the basilica and monastery buildings which fan out around an open square, and there are extraordinary mountain views from the terrace.

Ibiza, Spain
On your Mediterranean cruise to Spain, Ibiza is an island of beauty and of excess, blessed with scores of stunning cove beaches and dense pine forests.

Ibiza has long attracted hedonistic characters and wealthy bohemians, while nowadays it’s the extraordinary clubbing scene that most people come here to experience. Ibiza can lay a strong claim to being the globe’s clubbing capital, with virtually all of the world’s top house DJs and many more minor players performing here during the summer season. However, visit between October and May, and you’ll find a much more peaceful island.

During your MSC excursion to Ibiza you have to visit Ciutat d’Eivissa which is easily the most attractive settlement on the island. Colossal medieval walls guard the maze of cobbled streets of the UNESCO-listed old town quarter of Dalt Vila. The walls reach a dramatic climax at the main archway entrance, the imposing Portal de ses Taules. Just beyond is the elegant Plaça de Vila, which is lined with restaurants and cafés and makes a delightful setting for some tapas or a meal. It’s well worth the walk up the steep, winding streets to the cathedral, if only to enjoy the wonderful views out over the harbour.

A cruise excursion can take you to Formentera, the smallest of the four main Balearic Islands just eleven nautical miles south of Ibiza Town. Northwest of Es Pujols are the absolutely spectacular sands of Platja de Ses Illetes, and, across a narrow channel, the uninhabited island of Espalmador, where there’s another great beach, and water turquoise enough to trump any Caribbean brochure. Also worth a visit is Platja de Migjorn, a sweeping bay with 5km of pale sands and crystalline waters taking up most of Formentera’s southern coastline.

Naples, Italy
Naples is a large, sprawling Mediterranean port, with a centre that has many different focuses just waiting to be discovered on an MSC Mediterranean cruise excursion.

No trip to Naples is complete without visiting the area between Piazza Garibaldi and Via Toledo, roughly corresponding to the old Roman Neapolis (much of which is still unexcavated like in many other Italian cities).

The old part of Naples – the centro storico – is formed by the main streets of Via dei Tribunali and Via San Biagio dei Librai (the latter also known as “Spaccanapoli” as it literally splits Naples in two), which still follow the path of the ancient Roman roads. This is much the liveliest and most teeming part of Naples, an open-air kasbah of hawking, yelling humanity that makes up in energy what it lacks in grace. But it’s the city’s most intriguing quarter, and a must-see on any cruise to Naples. The Duomo is a Gothic building from the early thirteenth century (though with a late nineteenth-century neo-Gothic facade) dedicated to the patron saint of the city, San Gennaro.

MSC Mediterranean cruises also offer excursions to Pompeii. One of Campania’s most important Roman commercial centres – a moneyed resort for wealthy patricians and a trading town that exported wine and fish – the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79 in effect froze the town’s way of life as it stood at the time.

Trips can also be taken to the island of Capri, place of legend, home to the mythical Sirens and a much-eulogized playground of the super-rich in the years since – though now it has settled down to a lucrative existence as a target for day-trippers from the mainland.

Definitely worth a visit, but these days the origins of much of the purple prose may be hard to find.