Always wanted to see the Mediterranean countries, particularly Italy. This was a wonderful cruise starting in Barcelona, Spain and ending in Venice, Italy. Viking Cruise Lines was a awesome experience. The ship is perfectly sized at about 930 passengers (not crowded yet plenty of passengers to interact with). Meals were expertly prepared with several restaurant to choose from. We never had to wait for a table anywhere we ate. All ship personnel were very friendly, doing their jobs very efficiently, yet taking the time to have a conversation with passengers. Formal attire is not required meaning one less set of clothes to pack! Our trip took us from Barcelona to Marseille to Monte Carlo. Great tours of each city. We then got to Italy touring Florence/Pisa then Rome and Naples seeing ancient sites we had only seen in pictures. We sailed between Sicily and the boot of Italy on our way to Corfu, Greece. The next few stops were surprising gems of Dubrovnik and Split, Croatia. These are beautiful, ancient cities that we had not really heard of before. The walled city of Dubrovnik was beautiful and kept up very well. The retirement palace of a Roman Caesar in Split was very interesting. These two sites were used to film scenes in Game of Thrones. We did miss Krka waterfalls near Split which others raved about. Our final destination was Venice which was wonderful. We did the gondola ride and toured Doge Palace while roaming the city. This was a first class cruise I would recommend to anyone!!