Travel Maven blog

Cruising on Costa Favolosa, a slice of Italy

When chunks of parmesan grace the buffet lines in bowls the size of washtubs.

When dining room tables each burn a red candle for the evening meal.

When a multi-cultural group of cabin attendants greets you in the morning with a chorus of “Buon giorno.”

Then, you know you are cruising on a Costa ship.

If you are looking at a Mediterranean cruise out of Venice yet this summer or a 2011-2012 winter sojourn in the waters near Dubai, you might consider Costa’s newest ship, the 3,800-passenger Favolosa.

The vessel, Costa's largest, is an exhibition of design, materials and ingredients with a “Made in Italy” stamp.

Each time I picked out a chunk from the parmesan bowl, pictured above, I could only imagine the price tag for such an extravagance in the United States.

Read more about Costa and the Favolosa at TheTravelMavens.com.

 

Cruising on Costa Favolosa, a naming ceremony in Trieste

As many as 10,000 local townsfolk and formally-attired invited guests watched an extravagant naming ceremony Saturday night in Trieste, Italy, for a new cruise ship, the 3,800-passenger Costa Favolosa.

Favolosa, now Costa’s largest vessel, was built near Venice, but it was the first major ship christened in ancient Trieste in 50 years. The event also was part of national celebrations for the 150th anniversary of the unification of Italy.

Actors, musicians, and dancers provided a spectacular show at Trieste’s Piazza Unita d’Italia, said to be Europe’s biggest square. The dancers included a woman in filmy white who  soared above the audience, held aloft by helium balloons on a windy night as she moved to the sounds of a classical piano performce by Italian composer Ludovico Einaudi.

Zadar, Croatia, cruise port with sea organ

The joke going around the Seabourn Odyssey, a 450-passenger cruise ship sailing between Athens and Venice, is that the captain found the port of Zadar, Croatia, by Googling it on his computer.

Because so many passengers said they had never heard of Zadar, Captain Geir-Arne Thue-Nilsen feigned ignorance, too, as if he had stumbled upon Zadar while wandering up the Dalmatian Coast of the Adriatic Sea. “I just Googled it this morning,” he would say.

Zadar may be off the radar for some modern travelers, but ship captains have been stopping at this port for more than 700 years.