Adriatic Cruise

12 June 2025

I think our cruise around the Adriatic on the Cunard ship Queen Victoria was one of our best holidays. We visited ten different places and really enjoyed them all. Before joining the ship we had a couple of nights in Rome, visiting the the Colosseum and the Forum, and walking from Campo de'Fiori to the Spanish Steps by way of the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain and much more. Our first port of call on the cruise was Argostoli on Cephalonia in Greece where we saw ceratta ceratta sea turtles swimming in the lagoon, followed by a visit to Corfu. Next stop was Kotor in Montenegro, known as the southernmost fjord in Europe (though it is actually a ria - a submerged river canyon) which did look like Norway juxtaposed with a pretty medieval walled town very similar to Dubrovnik in Croatia, which was our next stop. We had previously visited Dubrovnik several times during our lovely holiday in Slano, Croatia, in 2017, so this time we headed straight to the Old Town Port to catch the ferry to Lokrum Island- a beautiful forested nature reserve, surrounded by deep blue sea. Trieste, Italy, is a pretty city which boasts the largest sea-facing square in Europe (Piazza Unità d'Italia). Zadar in Croatia is situated on a peninsula, with water on three sides, and reminded us of Cadiz and Valletta. Split in Croatia has a unique old town - a domino divided into two squares: the ruins of the the Roman retirement palace for the Emperor Diocletian (who was originally from Dalmatia) which is built on a strict grid system; and the later medieval old town which is a maze of irregular diagonal passageways. When we stopped in Valletta, Malta, (where we had been on our previous cruise in March) we took the opportunity to visit Mdina - a beautifully preserved medieval walled hill town that reminded us of the hill towns in Tuscany we visited last year. Our last port was Sorrento, Italy, built on the side of a steep gorge, high above the sea, from where we looked down on our cruise ship, and over to Mount Vesuvius. It was a lovely cruise with fascinating destinations and perfect weather.

You can see a small selection of my photos from the cruise here.