My main comment about the cruise (having been on several cruises before) is that this is the first time we did shore excursions on our own instead of booking via the ship. I was very satisfied overall. The people I contacted were, for the most part, ones I had read about on the cruise critic web page. In Naples, we had a very good tour with Marcello Maresca, Marcellomaresca@tin.it. It was a beautiful drive up the coast and we had a very nice local lunch. Once of the nice things about Marcello was that, while we noticed another small group from the ship eating at our restaurant, their guide just abandoned them to choose food on their own, and they ended up eating pizza. Marcello ordered a multi course meal for us with many local dishes to try including 2 types of wine and local liquors for only 20E per person. (well worth it).

In Livorno (Florence and Pisa), we had another good experience with Paola Migliorni (infor@florencetour.com). The tour was very informative and paced to our needs. Much nicer than a big tour bus.

Overall, the tours we booked ourselves were nicer than the ones we have experience in the past with the ships. I think they came out to a better value because there were 5 of us. These might not be a good value if there were only 2 people to split the cost. Read more