Italy Intensive Cruise on the Azamara Pursuit
6/16/24 to 7/2/24

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Page 1 – Pre-cruise in Venice, Italy
Page 2 – Embarkation, Ship, Cabin
Page 3 - Entertainment, Activitiess; Ports of Call: Ravenna, Italy; Sibenik, Croatia
Page 4 - Ports of Call: Kotor, Montenegro; Taranto, Italy; Taormina, Sicily
Page 5 - Ports of Call: Palermo, Sicily; Amalfi, Italy; Sorento, Italy
Page 6 - Disembarkation; Post-cruise in Florence, Italy

Activities

Enrichment Speaker

Dr. Mary Jane Cryan – Dr. Cryan was such a treat to have on this cruise. She was a wealth of knowledge and presented the material in a great way. She is an American-Irish writer who has lived in Italy since 1965. She has quite a biography that can be seen on her website http://www.elegantetruria.com. We looked forward to the days when she had a talk in the theater.

Her topics were:
Ravena’s magical mosaics and the ancient republic of San Marino
Kotor under the lion’s wing
Sicilia! Italy in the superlative
Sorrento: Paradise Peninsula

Best of the Best Dinner

With the Pursuit only having twelve suites, they were able to have a special dinner for suite guests. It was held in the Drawing Room with 21 guests and the senior management staff including the Captain and Cruise Director. It was a pleasure to be able to talk with the staff in a casual setting, as well as meet other folks at the table. The meal was the same type of wine pairing dinner that we had at the Chef’s Table. In other words, a great dining experience. I have included the menu and photos of the food in the menus section of the review.

Entertainment

Our Cruise Director was Grace O’Donnell-Clancy. She was a little powerhouse and an outstanding CD. She has a great personality and was always taking time to talk to the passengers. She was also so perky and happy whenever we were with her. With it being a smaller ship with a small entertainment staff, she was involved in everything; but she did seem to really enjoy it.

In addition to the Pursuit Band that played in the shows and around the ship from time to time, there was another group called Marvelous Funk from Bali. They would normally play in the Living Room before dinner and late night. They were very good, and we tried to spend some time listening to them every night. The musician we enjoyed the most was a singer pianist named Alexa. She would play 3 times a night in the Den. She was a pleasure to listen to, but I didn't take her photo.

Performers – There was only one outside performer brought in on the ten-day cruise. I wish there had been more. When there wasn’t a production show or special presentation, someone from the entertainment staff did a solo performance. CD Grace did one of the shows. She is a very good singer, and we enjoyed her performance. Associate CD, Nicholas Simpson, is an award-winning operatic tenor who provided us with an outstanding performance one night also.

Mandy Muden – Mandy is a British magician comedian who was a semi-finalist in 2024 on America’s Got Talent and a semi-finalist in 2018 on Britain’s Got Talent. She is a very talented and funny entertainer. The audience loved her. I was very disappointed she didn’t do a second show, especially since there weren’t any other outside entertainers brought in. There are some videos of what she does on her website, https://www.mandymudenmagic.com. It is worth checking out.

Production Shows – With the Pursuit being a very small ship with a small stage, I wasn’t expecting much from their production shows. During the first night’s welcome aboard variety show, the production cast singers each did a solo. We weren’t impressed, so we only went to one production show. It was better than we expected, but when we heard the singers at other activities, we still weren’t impressed.

We also were introduced to Captain Antonio Toledo from Spain during the welcome aboard show. He is exactly the type of captain I like on a cruise. He was very personable always walking around the ship meeting and chatting with the guests. At every port, he would be greeting the guests as they left the ship, even at the tender ports. He was a just a great guy with a great sense of humor. When he made his announcements or talked at an event he made jokes.

AzAmazing Evening - One of the unique features of cruising with Azamara is that they have what they call an AzAmazing Evening. On our last Azamara cruise, we got off the ship in Montevideo and went to a beautiful concert hall for what was a truly an amazing show. Unfortunatley, Azamara has moved most of their AzAmazning evenings to onboard shows, which makes them much less special. We stayed late in Kotor to have locals board the ship to perform a show called Mystical Tales of Montenegro. It was a very well done show presenting videos of the country while the musicians and dancers performed local entertainment.

White Night Party – Although this is not a production show, the production cast sang and danced in this evening entertainment. This is a staple of Azamara, where people are supposed to dress up in white for a special buffet dinner and entertainment on the pool deck. This one took place the next to last night of the cruise while we were anchored at Amalfi. We were fortunate that the weather cooperated. The temperature was mild with a cool breeze. Just perfect for an outdoor party. The buffet dinner had so many different items of delicious food to select from.

All the ship entertainers took turns doing their thing. At the beginning of the entertainment, the Captain had many of the staff enter the upper deck with the flags of their countries and come down to the main floor.

The dance floor was packed the whole evening. Everyone was having a great time. Even the captain sang a song, La Bamba. He also sang it at the previous evening’s crew karaoke competition. It was a very fun evening.

Ports of Call

Ravenna, Italy

I had been to Ravenna once before and was looking forward to Cathy being able to see the buildings with so many beautiful mosaics in them. We docked about 20 minutes away from the center of Ravenna.

Azamara provided a free shuttle service into town for those who weren’t taking ship excursions. It left every thirty minutes. I booked a private 3-hour walking tour through TripAdvisor/Viator (LINK). With us not knowing where the shuttle would drop us off, we needed to catch an early shuttle to make sure we had time to find our tour meeting place. When we exited the bus, we were next to a gorgeous monument of Athena standing over a fallen soldier. It is called Monument Ai Caduti. It would make it easier to find where to meet the shuttle for the ride back to the ship.

We started our walk to the meeting place and saw a monument to Garibaldi, one of the fathers of unified Italy.

We then came to Dante Alighieri’s tomb. Had I not seen it on my previous visit, I might have walked right by it. Most don’t realize it is in Ravenna.

Our meeting spot was at the tourist information center. We showed them our booking and they gave us a sticker for our shirt to show we were on the tour. We met our guide, Mary, just outside the office. She did a very good job for us.

She told us about Ravenna and the four UNESCO World Heritage Site buildings that we would be visiting. We then walked to our first one, Basilica di Sant'Apollinare Nuovo. It is an old church which was dedicated in 504 AD. The round bell tower was added in the 9th or 10th centuries.

Upon entering, we could see the walls covered with beautiful mosaics representing religious scenes. It is an impressive building.

There is so much color and detail in each panel.

There is also lots of beauty in the various chapels, one with an amazing dome.

After leaving the basilica, we saw other lovely buildings along our walk to the next destination.

We came to a gate where we would visit our next two destinations. The first one we visited was the Mausoleo di Galla Placidia, that was built in 430 AD. It is a very small mausoleum, and they must limit the number of people that enter at a time. They allowed our whole group of fifteen to enter, which was a comfortable number. With it being a small area with limited lighting, it is difficult to get photos, but they came out OK. It is an amazing place!

With our time in the mausoleum being limited, we had to be quick to take everything in.

It wasn’t long before we had to leave and go to the Ravenna’s main attraction right next door, Basilica di San Vitale.

This 6th century church is certainly the most stunning of the various buildings we would visit due to its size and number of mosaics.

The below photo shows the scale of the building with the people at the bottom. It is a big place.

The floors are also quite beautiful.

The below section is the only remaining original floor and was roped off to prevent people from walking on it.

We then walked toward our last destination, the Battistero Neoniano or Bapistry of Neon. It is the oldest monument in the city being built at the end of the 4th century.

The original floor is now nine feet below ground level. You can see how much the building has sunk by seeing the top of a door that is now on the ground.

Since there was a wait to get into the baptistry, Mary took us over to a museum close by first. The agent saved our place in line so that we didn’t lose any time. The small museum did have some interesting objects.

One of the reasons for going to the museum was that the Archbishop’s Chapel of St. Andrew was at the same location. It is the smallest of the eight UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Ravenna, but quite beautiful. The photos make it look bigger than it was.

I was so glad that Mary brought us there, since it wasn’t on the itinerary. We then walked to the baptistry. Everyone was grateful that there were benches around the room where they could sit and look at the beautiful mosaics.

We were very happy with Mary as a guide. She was passionate about her town and its history. There was so much of it with the area being taken over so many times. It is surprising that the ancient buildings have survived. I guess the victors appreciated the mosaics beauty also.

After the tour, we were pretty tired and needed to sit down before going back to the ship. We found a restaurant on the way and had a light lunch and a beer. It was a most refreshing break. Google Maps took us back to where we would meet the shuttle bus. It had been another enjoyable touring day with no rain.

Sibenik, Croatia

Sibenik was the replacement for Ancona, Italy. There was an issue with having space for the Pursuit, so we were glad that we would get to visit a different port in lovely Croatia. As we came into port, we passed by a lighthouse that also appeared to have a communications tower on top of it. We also saw the 16th century St. Nicholas Fortress at the entrance to the channel.

As we went through the rock lined channel, we saw a couple of man-made caves. We found out later that these were tunnels that were built by the Germans so that their smaller boats could bypass mines that were placed at the entrance to the channel. Some said that they were used for submarines, but they are too small for that. The locals referred to the two tunnels as “Hitler’s Eyes”.

Just after the last tunnel was a very nice home built on the cliff. It had a swimming pool and walkway down to the water. It is a perfect home for someone that wants their privacy, even with the occasional cruise ship going by.

As we came into town, it was quite a nice-looking place. There were two large forts on the hill.

It also appeared that Sibenik was building a new cruise terminal on the dock. They must be expecting more cruise ships in the future.

On the other side of the ship was a modern building that is called the D-Resort. It is a luxury design hotel.

Because we hadn’t been able to research what there was to see in the Sibenik area, we booked a ship walking tour. Our guide was Antonia. She was another wonderful guide. We were very lucky on this cruise with guides.

We started our walk observing the city’s architecture.

Then we walked up some steps into a small park area. We appreciated the shade from all the trees. There was an unusual looking statue near the top of the stairs to Peter Krešimir IV. He was the king of Dalmatia and Croatia in the middle of the 11th century. He is referred to as “The Great”, since the Croatian empire reached its peak territorially under his realm.

There was also a pretty fountain in the park.

Just outside the park was a large open area with a unique fountain that is a water clock. Two sprays act as the hands of a clock and the outside smaller sprays shoot off each second consecutively. It is an impressive fountain. It is also illuminated to be able to tell the time at night.

At the end of the open area was the entrance to the main city. It was decorated to look like a castle, since there was a festival going on.

Once inside, there was artwork created by the students that was hanging from the lines throughout the town.

Atonia wanted us to see the Church Uspenie Mother of God, an orthodox church that once belonged to the Knights Templar. It was a small church but nicely decorated.

We continued our walk enjoying the scenery, when we came to a musician with a cute sign to get contributions.

We also saw a cute statue of a young child with an umbrella.

We then came to what is considered the most important architectural monument of the Renaissance in all of Croatia, St. James Cathedral. It is an old building that was completed in 1535. It is on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

They set up stands for a performance at the back of the cathedral. We could still see the beautiful statues around the cathedral's roof.

Antonia pointed out the carved heads around the building. She told us that they were modeled after residents of the city.

The interior was quite gorgeous, although not ornate like some of the recent places we had visited.

I walked down to the crypt, which was very nice.

Upon leaving we passed by some lovely brass doors.

An interesting thing about this town was that the cathedral served as a backdrop for the Iron Bank in the ninth episode of the fifth season of Game of Thrones. Šibenik portrayed Braavos, the city where the Iron Bank is located. Just outside the church, Antonia pointed out a staircase that was where a Game of Thrones scene was filmed. Apparently, people pose on the steps to recreate the scene for photo opps. I sure don’t remember the scene.

I was so glad that we were able to visit Sibenik. It was a much more interesting town than I had expected. Antonia made it even better for us. As we left port and cruised through the channel, I could look back at Sibenik from our balcony.

I was able to take a photo of the other tunnel I missed when arriving in the morning. They keep fencing over both tunnels. People are allowed to walk around them though. There was a small dock close by.

It looks like Sibenik is looking forward to more tourists visiting. They had a large sign welcoming us.

I took a photo of St. Nicholas Fortress on the way out from a different angle.

Italy Intensive Cruise on the Azamara Pursuit 6/16/24 to 7/2/24