Frenchlu

Genoa is wonderful, just turn right, and continue. The harbour area is wonderful, but so are the city buildings with trompe l'oeil facades.

Naples, you can do Pompeii or Herculaneum or both by bus to the station and get the train.I was caught out once when there was a train strike but walked around "filthy" but with beautiful buildings Naples, to the archaelogical museum showing lots of exhibits from Pompeii. Just be careful and sensible, as Naples has a reputation.

La Goulette, you need to get a taxi to Tunis and Sidi bou Said ( spelling?)Instead of getting the fixed price taxi try walking down the road and haggling and make sure the agreed price is per taxi and not per person. The driver waits at each place and you pay at the end.

Try researching the "ports" part on the forum. There is a lot of info there. I print off maps before I go.

I was in Marseille a few months ago and the free port shuttle was only on at the weekends. I was lucky. When you get off you can go straight to the cathedral then down to the old port, via the fort, and through the new museum( you have to queue to get in but do not pay, you go up to the top of the museum and follow the walkway) when you are at the port you can take the little train through "the panier" the old part, (which we were not too impressed with) or continue to the other side of the port to go up to Notre Dame de la garde on the little train. There is also a bus to go up. The train goes up the long route up for views but is quite short on the return journey. Getting back on can be a nightmare at times and if it was bad I would walk back down. If you have the free shuttle then remember where to get back on. A previous time I took the ship shuttle which dropped off on the far side of the port near the train for the church. I loved the trip up but was not keen on that side. I much preferred the Cathedral, fort and museum side.

A couple of years ago I tendered at La Spezia. We should have docked at Livorno for Florence but the weather was so bad that the captain decided on La Spezia instead. ( someone said he decided to do that as he was not good at parallel parking!) It was getting really rough and we got onto the tender whilst it was pitching violently. Apparently they postponed any further tenders for about an hour due to the weather. That evening the people on our table did not turn up for dinner(late sitting) so we carried on. They eventually turned up an hour late and the MDR had stayed open to cater for all of those coming back from the excursion. They were soaked to the skin having waited for an hour for the tender, in the downpour on the floating dock with no protection. They were very unhappy bunnies.

I also hate excursions. A few months ago I went to Tunis. We did the Medina and Sidi Bou Said by taxi ( 3 of us) There is a fixed price taxi service as you come out of the port gate but that would have been double what we paid. We walked further along and negotiated. We only had time to do the Medina and Sidi bou said but if we had time we could have done the ruins as well for the same price. We had the driver waiting for us all the time(pay at the end) and I think we paid 15 Euros each, ie 45 for the car. One driver agreed a price for the car and then gave us a ticket stating it was per person. We got out and renegotiated. Just have some patience and your wits about you and you should have a good time. Another option is the tram/train but it is not convenient.

Difficult to ascertain. It depends if the ship docks early, the officials get cleared quickly and how long you have to wait for the shuttle to fill to take you to the gate. Then it depends on how quickly you walk to the station. San Pietro station is one of the first when you reach Rome and the Vatican is only a 5 to 10 minute walk. The train timetables are quite easy to find online. Hope this helps.

Thank you, that explains it. I had to book by phone but my friend managaed to do his online.

Living in France, using the French site, I found a really good offer, but of course the website let me down. I spent 40 minutes on the phone making the reservation.( difficult not being a native speaker) I am unable to get into "my space" to check my reservation, but have had it confirmed by e mail twice. Managed to book Allegrissimo, I think, but not able to check "my basket", and yet my friend up the road can see his reservation and basket. Just doesn't make sense. Another thing, payment had to be by french cheque as British mastercard was not acceptable as I don't have a British postcode????