Naples, Italy

Naples is the exception among Italian cruise ports: the ship ties up in front of the city rather than 80 km from it. For a group that is a significant advantage — people can walk off, do their own thing and be back aboard without a coach or a train.

Pompeii is the headline excursion and it is genuinely extraordinary — a Roman town of 11,000 people buried by Vesuvius in AD 79 and excavated over three centuries. It is also large, hot and hard underfoot. Herculaneum, buried by the same eruption, is a quarter of the size, better preserved with upper floors and timber still intact, and far quieter. For most groups it is the better of the two.

The National Archaeological Museum in the city is the missing half of any Pompeii visit: the mosaics, frescoes and bronzes were removed to Naples, so the site itself is largely bare. Seeing one without the other tells half the story.

Naples has a reputation for petty crime and chaotic traffic, and both are real enough to warrant ordinary caution rather than avoidance. It also has the best food of any port on a Western Mediterranean itinerary, and pizza was invented here — which for many groups settles the argument about where to have lunch.

Hot in summer, 29–33°C in July and August. Pompeii is an excavated city with no shade and dark stone underfoot — it is considerably hotter than the coastal temperature suggests.