MSC Sinfonia: 10-Night Mediterranean from Marseille

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.

Malaga cruise port is the main gateway to Spain's Costa del Sol and Andalusia. The city sits on Spain's southern coast, about 130 kilometers west of Granada and 50 kilometers east of Marbella.

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.

Alicante is a mid-sized Spanish city of about 330,000 people on the Costa Blanca in southeastern Spain. It's a working Mediterranean city that happens to have a beautiful waterfront, a hilltop castle, and some of the best weather in Europe.

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.

Genoa cruise port is one of the main embarkation points for western Mediterranean itineraries, particularly for MSC and Costa Cruises, which both have roots here. The city is the capital of Liguria and the birthplace of Christopher Columbus, pesto, and focaccia, and it has a grittier, more working-class feel than the polished Italian cities most tourists flock to.