Johannesburg - You never realise just how far down the tip of Africa we South Africans are until you venture into Europe.
It’s not just the language; the veritable Tower of Babel as French segues into Italian, Greek, Turkish and even Arabic, with a smattering of German and Spanish, but rather the sheer scale and scope of Mediterranean history and its cyclical nature.
It’s also impossible, sitting back in Joburg surfing Google, to make sense of it, which is why a cruise around the Mediterranean makes so much sense. MSC, best known here for its annual forays up the east coast from Durban to Portuguese Island, Maputo, Seychelles and beyond, is a past master of the region – after all, its full name is the Mediterranean Shipping Company.
A great example is its scheduled weekly European summer cruise from Venice to Bari, on the Achilles heel of Italy, across the Adriatic to Katakolon in Greece, down and around into the Adriatic, stopping at Izmir and Istanbul in Turkey, before turning back through the Dardanelles and heading for Dubrovnik in Croatia before ending back in Venice.
Forget the beautiful scenery, or the opulent luxury of the ship, the true gem lies in the shore excursions.
Just like your trip on board, you can do it the economic way or you can choose the upmarket version. There’s nothing stopping you from hopping off in every port, walking into town or hiring a taxi. But it’s all hard work. It’s also potentially very expensive.
More than anything else, there’s no guarantee that you’ll get to see what you set out to see. MSC has outsourced all its excursions to local guides in each port, all of whom offer permutations ranging from hard core history to extreme souvenir shopping – and all points in between.
It’s unwise to discard the history. Coming from a history that regards 300 years back as positively antediluvian, going to see the Virgin Mary’s putative last house where she died 12 years after Jesus was crucified, or to see Olympia, where the first athletes came together in a spirit of peace and brotherhood – the DNA of the modern games, 700 years before Christ was born – is breathtaking.
Whether you are a Christian or a sports fan or just a curious tourist, you can’t get this information from looking at the itinerary.
Katakolon is a little port on the west coast of Greece; Olympia is a half-hour bus ride away near the town of Pyrgos.
Izmir is Turkey’s third largest city and a major port, Ephesus where St Paul preached and was almost lynched is an hour down the road, while Mary’s house is a further 7km down the road atop a mountain guarded by dense forests.
Istanbul is much the same. You can try to buy museum tickets for the Blue Mosque or the Hagia Sophia opposite, but then you won’t get to have lunch at the spectacular 19th century Ciragan Palace built as a banqueting hall for foreign ambassadors, take a boat trip from one continent to another, shop in the Grand Bazaar and be accosted by feral frenetic salesmen.
You might see the walled city of Dubrovnik, you might even spend an hour walking the 2km long battlements, 25m high and 6m across, that still guard the city, widely recognised as the best example of medieval fortress towns and the set for King’s Landing in the hit HBO series Game of Thrones, but you won’t travel to a farm in Konavle and be treated to a traditional Dalmatian dance and quaff litres of homemade red and white wine as you wash down prosciutto ham, olives and feta cheese.
And that’s discounting the services of a brilliant tour guide because, remember, Olympia is just a collection of knocked over ruins, overgrown by grass.
Ephesus is marginally better, but it’s only when you get to Istanbul that the buildings are actually standing – and, in the case of the Topkapi Palace, see how the sultans lived with their wealth and weapons – that you get a sense of the history before you.
A great tour guide makes a grassy knoll come alive with the sound of Chariots of Fire looping in your mind as you walk the ancient stadium of Olympia, breaking the history into bite-sized and often irreverent, hilarious chunks, helping you traverse epochs without ever getting bored or distracted.
Yes, it is cheaper to do it on your own, just like it’s cheaper to see the world by hitching lifts and backpacking. But there comes a time, though, to do it properly, to see the world and then head back into the pampered womb of a cruise ship where, as one aficionado put it, you only have to unpack once, irrespective of the number of countries you visit.
If You Go...
l There are five guided excursions to Bari ranging from n39.90 to n50.90 for adults. They’re all half-day or about four hours in duration. You can taste olive oil, visit caves, visit the Basilica of St Nicholas (Bari’s patron saint) or even see the set where Mel Gibson filmed The Passion of the Christ.
l Katakolon has four tours ranging from n55.90 to n69.90. Most involve going to Olympia with a museum trip tacked on, or sampling homemade wine as you watch olive oil being made, or just straightforward shopping. All the tours are four hours long.
l Izmir has only three tours – you can do Ephesus on its own, the fifth largest city in the Roman Empire in its day, or Ephesus and Mary’s House or St John’s Monastery and Mary’s House. It’s good for pilgrims and sightseers alike. There’s a bit of curio shopping available as you leave Ephesus itself and also the option of going to a leather factory that makes leather bags and jackets for export for all the big name brands. Expect to pay between n55.90 and n69.90 an adult for the tour – not a jacket.
l Istanbul is one of the big drawcards of the tour, with six excursions. You can cruise the Bosphorus in a far smaller vessel, visit Topkapi Palace and go shopping in the Grand Bazaar, visit the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia and do some shopping. Or do the whole lot plus visit the Ciragan Palace and see how Persian carpets are made (and even buy one of your choice less 40 percent). Expect to pay n45.90 to n152.90 an adult for the deluxe all-in tour.
l Dubrovnik, at seven tours, is one of the most popular stops. It’s easy to see why. The scenery is breathtaking, the people are friendly, and unlike Istanbul the prices are on the items you want to buy, without having to choose a number out of thin air and haggle for anything from an Aladdin’s lamp to the stall owner’s daughter. The walled city is exquisite; it’s a Unesco site, and you can explore it on foot – or by Segway if you’re feeling adventurous. If you’re feeling fit, you can even bike through the countryside. The best option of all would be to take a bus ride down to Konavle to get stuck into the regional wine, cheese and ham. Within an hour you’ll be singing along to Croatian songs – in fluent Italian. Prices range n45.90 to n89.90.
l Venice is the biggie of them all. The beautiful northern Italian city is also the cheapest, because you can just negotiate with the river taxis to take you to the romance of St Mark’s Square from the harbour. Or you can elect to go on a ferry at n35.90. But what’s Venice without a gondola ride – and a tour at the same time? You can do those for anything between n49.90 and n85.90. Venice doesn’t need a helluva lot of explaining. It’s got it all – incredible souvenir opportunities right on the harbour all the way down to St Mark’s Square, cheap pastramis and cold drinks from stalls to eye-watering hot chocolates on the square in 300-year-old tea rooms, where Giacomo Casanova might have hung out as he recovered from his debaucheries of the night before.
Getting there
Getting to Venice is easy. It all comes down to how you want to go, when, and how much you want to pay.
Air France flies out to Paris every night from OR Tambo, landing at 6am. From there it’s a short stroll across from 2E to 2F at Charles de Gaulle to catch a connecting flight to Venice’s Marco Polo airport, also on Air France, going from the biggest airbus in the world to perhaps the smallest.
Report in to MSC’s transfer desk and wait for the luxury bus to the harbour. Going back is the same, although you could face a lengthy wait at either Marco Polo or Charles de Gaulle. The good news is that Charles de Gaulle’s boast of letting you catch a connecting Air France flight from 2F to 2E in under 15 minutes is absolutely spot on.
The alternative is to take Turkish Airlines, which anecdotally seems to be receiving rave reviews. Fly direct from Joburg to Ankara and connect to Venice or take Emirates to Dubai and from there to Venice.
Lufthansa does the route too, from ORT to Frankfurt and then a connector to Marco Polo.
Bottom line, there’s no transport issue preventing you from getting to Venice; ever. - Saturday Star