Italy/Greece 2023 – The Planning Process (Italy Ports)

Trip: Rome and Cruise through Italy and Greece (Norwegian Breakaway)
Dates: September 1 – 15, 2023
Who: Me (Jess), Emily (one of my best friends), Beverly (my mom), Jeff (my stepdad), Jen (my aunt), and Megan (my sister).

Warning: This is a wordy post with zero to no photos. Truly, a planning post.

I laid out a lot of background and my overall planning method in my previous Greece ports post. So, let’s get right into my Italy port planning…..

Valletta, Malta

Ok, so this is not Italy, but we had eight ports, so this makes both posts even. None of the NCL or Shore Excursions Group options appealed to me. My main interest was seeing the Blue Lagoon. We looked into options of renting a private or semi-private boat to take us there and all the other places to see. The only person not interested was Emily, due to sea-sickness concerns.

I quickly realized that the port was pretty far away from where most of the charters docked. I did find one that offered added on pick-up/drop-off from the cruise port – MaltaExcursions.com offered several that would get us where we wanted to go. We were super close to booking and then our port times changed. It was a half hour on either end, but it was enough that it made us uneasy in booking.

One of my friends told me that she loved Malta on her cruise and just got off the ship to walk around. Ultimately, that’s what most of us decided to do. As it was the halfway point in our cruise, it would allow us to take it easier, too. Emily, Megan, and I just explored. Mom and Jeff got off the ship and ended up getting a Hop-On, Hop-Off tour.

Jen went with a NCL excursion – Malta’s Scenic Beauty. She really did enjoy it and would recommend it to anyone who wants to see Malta, but don’t want a ton of walking. Valletta is a former military defense fort city. There are a lot of hills and stairs….. this is true of pretty much anywhere you’ll go in the Mediterranean, but very much so in Malta.

Messina (Sicily)

Out of all the ports, this one had the most via NCL that interested me. As a Godfather fan, this excursion was appealing. There were also some vineyard and gastronomy tours that looked fun.

My friend Brittany (who went with me to Norway) visited Italy earlier in the summer. Her videos and photos of Taormina grabbed my heart. I knew after that I wanted to do something that took me there. Since we weren’t able to go to the Blue Lagoon in Malta, I was also drawn to anything that took us on the water.

Shore Excursions Group had an excursion, Taormina and the Blue Grotto, that looked amazing. It fit the bill for everything I wanted. My sister and I jumped at booking it. I’ll detail it in future posts, but this was a phenomenal day. We had a blast.

Everyone else wasn’t sure what they wanted to do and were going to play it a little more by ear.

Naples

I very quickly had two missions for Naples….. Amalfi Coast and Pompeii.

NCL had a lot of options. So did Shore Excursions Group and theirs were a bit cheaper. We all wanted to do Pompeii, Sorrento, and the Amalfi Coast tour. Decision made! Then, our port times changed. Decision unmade. I emailed Shore Excursions Group to see if the tour would still be possible with the new times and they indicated it wouldn’t.

By that point, most of the NCL options were booked. After some investigating, I decided it was time to give up on Pompeii. We just wouldn’t have time to do a full experience of both Pompeii and Amalfi Coast on our own. While it felt like I *needed* to see such a historical site, I really *wanted* to see Amalfi Coast. It was purely a vain dream…. and I had been duly notified that Amalfi is crowded with lots of hills/stairs… but, I wanted to see it.

I came across a website Amalfi Driver where you could book private drivers from the port. We still would need to edit an 8 hour tour to a 6 or 7 hour tour, but the private driver would allow for that. We used Tour of Amalfi Coast and Sorrento Coast in one DayTrip as a starting point. I was able to correspond with the driving company and worked out a plan. The nice thing was we were getting a private tour for less than similar tours through NCL. And, smaller vehicles were able to get to places in the towns that buses couldn’t.

A friend my sister made on the ship was on a tour with NCL and her bus kept arriving in towns as we were leaving them. Apparently, the buses were having a hard time making it through traffic, etc.

Florence/Pisa (Livorno)

This was another port where I had big wishes. I wanted to see Pisa, Florence, AND Tuscany. None of the standard group tours offered all three…. a combination of two out of three, but not all of them.

The only option I could find was a private tour through Bella Italia – Florence, Pisa and Chianti Wine. After some correspondence, we decided to go with it. Again, it was less per person than most options via NCL and other groups AND we would be seeing more. This was one of the best choices we made during our trip. It was a phenomenal day!

Italy/Greece 2023 Trip Report (September 1 – 15, 2023)
– The Beginning (Vivi Alla Giornata!)
– The Planning Process (Rome)
– The Planning Process (Greece Ports)
– The Planning Process (Italy Ports)
– Flight Confusion
– Day 0: Leave for Rome (September 1, 2023)
– Day 1: Rome Arrival and City Tour (September 2, 2023)
– Day 2: Board the Breakaway (September 3, 2023)
– Day 3: Sea Day (September 4, 2023)
– Day 4: Santorini, Greece (September 5, 2023)
– Day 5: Athens (Piraeus), Greece (September 6, 2023)
– Day 6: Mykonos, Greece (September 7, 2023)
– Day 7: Olympia (Katakolon), Greece (September 8, 2023)
– Day 8: Valletta, Malta (September 9, 2023)
– Day 9: Messina (Sicily), Italy (September 10, 2023)
– Day 10: Naples, Italy (September 11, 2023)
– Day 11: Florence/Pisa (Livorno), Italy (September 12, 2023)
– Day 12: Disembark and Vatican City (September 13, 2023)
– Day 13: Rome (September 14, 2023)
– Day 14: Leaving Rome (September 15, 2023) and Some Final Thoughts