Costa Smeralda: 7-Night Western Mediterranean

Savona cruise port is the main homeport for Costa Crociere (Costa Cruises), Italy's largest cruise line. Savona sits on the Italian Riviera (Liguria region) about 45 kilometers southwest of Genoa and 170 kilometers north of Nice.

Marseille cruise port is France's busiest and one of the major stops on western Mediterranean itineraries. The city is France's second largest and its oldest, founded by Greek sailors over 2,600 years ago, and it has a rougher, more authentic edge than the polished Riviera towns further east.

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.

Ibiza is one of Spain's Balearic Islands in the western Mediterranean, about 150 km off the coast of Valencia. The cruise port is in Ibiza Town (Eivissa), on the southeast coast of the island.

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.

Rome's cruise port is in Civitavecchia, a working port town about 80 kilometers northwest of the city. That distance is the single most important thing to understand about this stop.