SusanWilliams

Hallo, this will be our first time to Italy.

My husband is in "architecture" and I just want to travel - we were thinking of the Cruises to get the most out of our week? Then we'll be traveling at night and be in another city every-day.

I also want to go to "Tower of Pizza" and is not sure if this will be possible going on these cruises?

Could someone please let me know what they suggest?

Unfortunately we don't have anything more than a week?

SusanWilliams

Sorry meant to say Italy / Marseilles / Barcelona

bilboburgler

Well I've not done the "herded like sheep" thing since I was 18 so I cannot advise.

Yes there will be a cruise trip which has a van trip to Pisa or Florence (better use of your life maybe)

Not sure how you will be getting more out of your week staying in a giant floating hotel but hey the steel structures themselves are interesting.

If it were me with a week I'd do something like fly into Venice and split you time between there and Florence with a flight our of Milan

Rubicund

With such a short space of time you can only do a couple of destinations in Northern Italy, so forget Marseilles and Barcelona on this trip, you don't have the time. Barcelona itself is 4/5 nights.

If you want to see the Leaning Tower of Dominos in Pizza, depending where you fly into, (Pisa, Genoa or Milan-in that order of nearness) then one night is enough. Then off to Venice, miss Florence this time and fly home from there.

adrienne

I don't think cruises are the best use of time as your land time is limited. Read a couple of cruise itineraries on line and you'll see how few hours you have to sight see and that you're losing the evening and early morning hours. You'll be disembarking and embarking with hundreds (thousands) of other people and that takes lots of time.

Where in Italy do you want to go? Rome and Florence are not port cities and it will take you 1 to 1.5 hours each way to get there and back.

First-time visitors to Europe don't generally include Marseilles in the itinerary, especially over Paris. This is an odd choice.

You'll either have to take the cruise escorted tours and go where they take you or do your own planning and buy tickets in advance to see anything of the places you stop at. For most European cities, a few hours is not enough time to experience the city.

For architecture, Barcelona is a good choice but it's mostly Modernist. For varied architecture (and a beautiful city), Prague would be a great place.

What is the "Tower of Pizza?" I'm envisioning a giant pizza covered with every topping on earth. Is this a sight or a chain restaurant? Where is it located? Why do you want to go there?

With one week I would do your own land trip and choose either one large city (London, Paris, etc.) or 2 smaller locations that are fairly close to each other (Rome & Florence or Rome & Venice). Forget the cruise unless you like cruising. It's not an efficient way to travel.

cathies

A lot of the magic in Italy is in the cities and towns in the evenings. It would be a shame to be back on the boat and miss all of that. For a week I would fly into one town you would like to see, travel by train from there to another, perhaps Rome and fly home from there. Don't try to see too much this time.

nytraveler

IMHO cruises give you the lest possible europe for your dollar. You spend more than half your time just sitting on a big old boat - and another significant portion getting from the boat to the places you want to see (unless your husband has a md desire to check out the architecture of cruise ports).

With so little time suggest you pick the 2 (TWO) places you want to see most and just go and visit them. (And the trous provided by the cruise will not focus on architecture they will focus on 1 or 2 sights - yes, perhaps the Tower of Dominoes - and a lot of "shopping").

dwdvagamundo

For architecture, Italy. Forget about a cruise. Split your time equally between Rome and Florence with a day trip to Pisa from Florence to see the Tower and the Cathedral.

Those two cities will offer more than enough to keep you both occupied for a week and your husband will be in architectural heaven.

Gordon_R

Here's me thinking the Tower of Pizza was one of Homer Simpson's favourite snacks...

PalenQ

Here's me thinking the Tower of Pizza was one of Homer Simpson's favourite snacks...>

Well there is a Tower of Pizza in Michigan where I live - it's on Dominos Farms in Ann Arbor - World HQ of Domino's pizza - once slated to be constructed but never got past a picture of the model seen in the link below - Domino's Farms HQ is also known for having the world's largest copper roof. Aah there's a lot of dough in the pizza business.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Mon...Tower_of_Pizza

BigRuss

<i>Well there is a Tower of Pizza in Michigan where I live - it's on Dominos Farms in Ann Arbor - World HQ of Domino's pizza</i>

Hilarious.

To the OP: cruises suck - cattle-penned in a ship, 1/2 day in port, revert to cattle pen, eat too much, repeat.

You want architecture, go to Venice and Rome and take as much time as you can. Or just go to Barcelona and take a side trip or two. Otherwise, you're cramming too many destinations and the trip will suck.

Sassafrass

I love cruises, but not for seeing anything in Europe, especially Italy. Most things you want to see are too far from ports and you do not get any of the evening cultural experiences.

Eight days is very short time. Does that include travel time? Choose two places out of the top three (basing this on your DH's interest in architecture and your desire to see Pisa), so Rome and Florence or Venice and Florence. If you find you are finished with sight seeing in any one place, you can do short day trips from any of them on the spur of the moment.

suze

<<Italy / Marseilles / Barcelona>>

That's way too much for only 8 days.

Personally I wouldn't want to do a cruise.

You could do Venice/Rome or Venice/Florence or Florence/Rome with only 8 days. Or Marseilles/Barcelona only.

cmeyer54

Does your eight days include a day on each end for travel to/from Europe? If so, you will only have 6 real days. I would select either Rome or Florence and use that as your base. Each could easily consume the entire 6 days, believe me. However, you could do a day trip to Pompeii from Rome or head up to Montalcino in southern tuscany for some winery tours for a day. From Florence, you can easily go to Pisa for a day or again, to a surrounding/near wine or hill town for a day. Your first day on the ground will be quite jet lagged so I wouldn't try to cram too many sights into that day. Evenings in italian cities are magical - a cruise will rob you of that.

PalenQ

A problem with the Matterhorn is that it is often shrouded in clouds or fogs or could be for days on end sometimes and I think winter is more cloudy than summer. So you may trek up to Zermat and in only a few days there not even see it!

suze

You could spend all 8 days in any major city in Europe and have an excellent experience, without running out of things to do, or even barely scratching the surface.

greg

There are several metrics to determine getting the "most."

What cruise offers and excels is low cost per day ratio provided you don't take anything extra offered by the cruise company. If you don't care of what the days consist of, what you have in mind makes sense. Not surprisingly, many from the USA use this metric and end up choosing cruises.

However, what if you care about what the days consist of? What if you want to spend several days at one place and not just a few hurried hours on shore excursions? Then the so called cruise "value" disappears.

Dayle

Greg,

You just offended a large number of American Fodorites.

adrienne

<< What cruise offers and excels is low cost per day ratio >>

I think cruises are expensive, even without the optional tours. I can't imagine that anyone would think that they are low cost unless you get on a tramp steamer.

PalenQ

Many folks go more for the cruise and the trapping on a cruise ship than to say see Europe - they'd rather be in the gtrappings of luxury with familiar faces back on the ship - they may not want to be staying in some Europe hotel.

A whole different outlook and mentality.