I walked from the entrance at the cruise port to the Civitavecchia railway station and this took about 40 minutes. I caught the local bus back to the cruise port, and in hindsight this would have been a better option both ways as it is cheap and quite quick. The train to Rome was late and took over an hour. I have been to Rome previously so did not have an extensive list of places to visit. I had to use the Metro to get to some places and discovered that coins are needed to purchase tickets. I nearly missed my train on the return journey as the platform number was posted on station information screens only a short time before departure, and the walk to the platform was considerable. On this occasion (and I guess on a regular basis) trains from Termini to Civitavecchia depart from platforms located at the far end of the airport train platform.

The ship berthed at a pier close to the town, so it was easy to walk around the town and the harbour. The lines to re-board the ship were very long and the process took over an hour. There was no MSC presence to monitor and control what was happening in the lines, and this aspect spoiled an otherwise pleasant visit to the Ajaccio.

The ship visited Palma de Mallorca on Christmas Day, so there were few sights such as the cathedral open during the time spent in port. I walked to and from the cruise terminal to the city centre along the waterfront pedestrian pathway on a beautiful day, and this ended up being a good way to pass the time and get some exercise.

As I had previously visited Barcelona, I planned beforehand to visit Montserrat by public transport. I walked from the cruise port to the Drassanes metro stop near the Christopher Columbus memorial, caught the metro to Placa Espana, and then caught a train to Montserrat which departs from Platform R5 (direction Manressa) on an hourly schedule. There is a choice of travelling up the mountain by cable car or train. I took the cable car, but had to wait about an hour for a ride up the mountain to become available. If I was to do the visit again, I would probably choose the train. My visit coincided with a public holiday so there were many tourist at the site. The setting of the monastery is spectacular. The return journey went smoothly although I was anxious about not getting caught by long lines at the cable car on the descent from the mountain and allowed plenty of time so that this would not happen.

I had originally planned to visit Aix-en-Provence by train when in Marseille, but a French railway strike meant that this was not possible. Instead I visited the Church of Notre Dame de la Guard which dominates the Marseille skyline and I was not disappointed. I walked for about 10 minutes to the entrance to the cruise port (following the green line) where a free shuttle bus took me to a stop near where the ferries to Algeria are berthed. Note that this free bus does not start service until after 9.00 am. I then walked and visited the Cathedrale de Major which opens at 10.00 am, and then went further along the road to the Mucem St Jean where I caught Bus 60 to Notre Dame. The church is a large and interesting complex, and the views of the city are spectacular. On the way back from Notre Dame I spent some time wandering about the Old Port before returning to the free shuttle bus. There was a large crowd waiting to board the shuttle bus back to the cruise terminal as there were two large MSC cruise ships in port.

Genoa was my port of embarkation and disembarkation. As I checked in early for the cruise I went for a wander along the main road, but there was not too much to see. The lines for security meant that it took longer to get back on the ship than it it did to check-in. The walk between the station and the cruise terminal was relatively straightforward after checking out the route on Google.