MSC Splendida: 23-Night Grand Voyage

Florence (Livorno) cruise port is the main Tuscan stop on Mediterranean itineraries, but it's worth being clear about what you're actually docking at. The port is Livorno, a working industrial city on the Ligurian coast, about 85 kilometers west of Florence.

Cagliari is the capital of Sardinia, Italy's second-largest island, on the island's southern coast. The cruise port (Porto di Cagliari) sits directly at the edge of the old town, about a 10-minute walk from Piazza Matteotti and the base of the historic Castello district.

Palermo cruise port drops you into one of the most chaotic, layered, and rewarding cities in the Mediterranean. This is the capital of Sicily, sitting on the northwestern coast of the island along a gulf facing the Tyrrhenian Sea.

Valletta cruise port is one of the most visually dramatic arrivals on any Mediterranean itinerary. Ships sail into the Grand Harbour, a deep natural inlet flanked by honey-colored limestone walls that rise straight out of the water, with Valletta itself perched on the peninsula above.

Barcelona cruise port is the busiest in the Mediterranean, handling millions of passengers a year across multiple terminals. The city behind it earns that traffic.

Gibraltar is a British Overseas Territory at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, a 6.7-square-kilometer enclave dominated by the Rock of Gibraltar, a 426-meter limestone monolith that guards the western entrance to the Mediterranean.

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria is the largest city in the Canary Islands, a Spanish archipelago off the northwest coast of Africa. The city has about 380,000 residents and serves as a major embarkation port for Canary Islands cruises and a regular port of call on Atlantic, repositioning, and West Africa itineraries.

Rio de Janeiro is one of the most visually dramatic cities on earth, set between granite peaks, tropical forest, and Atlantic beaches. The city of about 6.