TRAVEL Italy
Amidst enduring a gruelling Cape Town winter, the opportunity arose to head off to Italy and embark on Norwegian Viva’s maiden voyage. I’ll be honest though, while a trip to Italy had always been on my bucket list, a cruise hadn’t, but thanks to this magnificent ship in the Norwegian Cruise Line’s fleet, I’ve changed my mind.
After 16 hours of travelling from Cape Town to Italy via Istanbul, we landed at Venice Marco Polo Airport and then drove to Trieste town, less than two hours from Venice, ‘the floating city’.
TAKING ON TRIESTE
I managed to tear my eyes away from the turquoise waters packed with beachgoers and soaked up the surrounding architecture as we made our way to our hotel, Savoia Excelsior Palace. Directly opposite Riva del Mandracchio, the hotel offers sublime views of the Adriatic Sea and ships docked in the waterfront. Our first glimpse of our home for the next four days as we made our way to Rome, was breathtaking, its massive size mindblowing. A 20-passenger deck ship, with 1586 staterooms for up to 3 099 guests and 1 506 crew members, is a sight to behold.
