However the French Riviera and Corsica is barely half the story. Throw in Elba and Rome too. Seven nights on the sails-billowing Star Clipper are wrapped with lodge nights in Good and Rome.
Nostalgically rekindling the golden age of sail, the four-masted 366-feet lengthy clipper sails by means of the Mediterranean. From the bikini and jet-ski hedonism of Good to the pure white cassocks and imperial grandeur of Rome.
This fairy-tale tall-ship calls in on the French island of Corsica on its voyage from the Côte d’Azur to Italy.
The welcome
A month earlier than departure, a personalised cruise booklet drops by means of the letter field. From flight occasions by means of cabin quantity to dinner gown code, all the things is included.
On arrival at Good airport, Riviera’s representatives information visitors to a coach for switch to a metropolis centre lodge.
On Day 2 we depart Good for Cannes, driving previous the final foothills of the Alpes-Maritimes and Hemingway’s beloved Antibes. It is a panorama the place you’ll be able to ski within the morning and swim within the afternoon.
A tour of glittering Cannes takes us previous the well-known crimson carpet, cleaned thrice each day through the Movie Pageant. Handprints recall stars of the film world. We stroll alongside a brief stretch of the elegant Croisette promenade after which right into a market the place stalls are laden with the produce of Provence.
Late afternoon, a young crosses to the Star Clipper moored within the bay. Cool flannels, an iced punch and afternoon tea welcome us aboard.
The cabin
Easily lacquered wealthy mahogany blends with heat brass to create admiral stylish. Workers service the cabin twice a day. Most cabins might be configured as twins for associates travelling collectively.
House at sea is at premium so there’s room underneath the mattress for circumstances in addition to many drawers for storage to maintain all the things ship-shape. In true Hornblower model, a porthole provides an ocean view. However Hornblower by no means had a wall-mounted tv with DVD participant, air-conditioning and en-suite toilet with bathe.
The amenities
Cooled by sea breezes the open-air Tropical Bar is the venue for drinks all through the day and post-dinner dancing, quizzes and exhibits. It leads right into a e-book lined library, the type of room with inexperienced baize bridge tables, the place Nelson would have deliberate technique.
Breakfast and lunch are grand buffets served within the restaurant. An egg chef flips omelettes while different visitors mix-and-match from fruit, continental and a standard English breakfast. Undoubtedly, top quality meals is likely one of the Star Clipper’s strengths.
Normally lunch is a buffet within the Clipper Eating Room. Although a deck prime buffet, served within the limestone amphitheatre port of Bonifacio, needs to be one in all Corsica’s most lovely lunch spots.
There’s open seating for the a la carte dinner service which stretches over two hours. Clipper visitors are usually adventurous souls, typically well-travelled, they usually benefit from the alternative to swap yarns. A Captain’s Dinner, with lobster and steak on the menu, and a waiter’s procession of flaming baked Alaska desserts is a memorable event. All through the cruise, waiters in blue-hooped sailor apparel present discrete and environment friendly service.
Two splash swimming pools, on solar and aft decks, are surrounded by sun-loungers. Alternatively, there’s the bowsprit internet for absorbing the solar. Visitors looking for the last word in rest sign-up for an Asian therapeutic massage.
Then for a real Hornblower heart-stopping second, harnessed visitors learn to climb the rigging, if they need.
Excursions
Tenders take visitors to a seashore, close to St Tropez, for a morning of swimming, paddle-boarding and kayaking.
Arriving within the billionaires’ playground of arty St Tropez, the yachts are extra mega, the bronze tans deeper and the bikinis briefer than in Good and Cannes. Helicopters buzz overhead.
It could be that Brigitte Bardot’s efficiency within the 1956 film, “And God created lady” now shapes this tiny city’s decadent persona greater than when the physique of Christian martyr St Topaz was washed ashore in AD 55.
5 excursions on Corsica deserve a put up of their very own on one other day. From Ile de Russe there’s a drive by means of the mountain villages, a full day in Ajaccio to discover Napoleon’s legacy, beautiful views from the limestone peninsula of Bonifacio, water sports activities and swimming on a seashore cease and eventually historic Bastia.
300 days, the size of Napoleon’s exile, inspired travellers on the Grand Tour to incorporate Italy’s third largest island. After docking at Portoferraio, a scenic drive takes us to Porto Azzurro, often known as Little Portofino.
Arriving on the working farm of Tentua Chiusa, the place the vineyards run all the way down to the seashore, cypress and olive timber carry a really feel of Tuscany to the panorama. A wine tasting is accompanied by cheese, olives, salami and bread dipped within the property’s further virgin olive oil. Drunk cake constituted of Tentuta Chiusa’s candy crimson wine, with almonds and grapes, encapsulates the flavours of this lovely property.
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Rome is the grand finale. Strolling spherical St Peter’s basilica, immaculately restored after an 1826, our information introduces us to a world of structure the place each color, pose and texture has which means.
A coach tour introduces the stays of historical baths and metropolis partitions, the Coliseum and Mussolini’s rail terminus. And the Circus Maximus that when provided chariot races now hosts the likes of Bruce Springsteen. It’s a journey from The Emperor to The Boss. Then it’s a stroll by means of piazzas and pizzas to the Pantheon, the Piazza Navona and the Trevi Fountain. However don’t clamber in for a cooling dip the high quality is €800.
Different good touches
Importantly, when Riviera constitution the Star Clipper, only one language is spoken. English. A each day programme, delivered to each cabin, encompasses a potted historical past on every port of name, typically with a map too. Self-service tea and occasional can be found within the Piano Bar. As well as, there’s an early chicken breakfast accessible and in addition late evening snack. On the final night, a replica of a e-book “The Star Clipper World,” is left on the mattress through the flip down service, as a farewell reward.
One of the best bit
Riviera deal with all the things. Reserving the flights and sending the check-in codes. Transfers are seamless. Baggage is delivered and picked up to and from rooms and cabins.
Two French-speaking Riviera employees are available to advise on the each day programme and type out any points. Organising their impromptu “workplace” within the Piano Bar, they’re available to assist with any downside from a blocked sink to a medical emergency.
The fee
On July twelfth 2024, Riveria will supply The French Riviera and Corsica: From Rome to Good by way of Sardinia and Corsica, this time on The Star Flyer. Starting in Rome, the 11-day journey concludes in Good, calling at Portoferraio, Bonifacio, Alghero, Ajaccio, Calvi, St Tropez and Cannes.
Costs start from £2,799, which incorporates flights, transfers, full breakfast, buffet lunch, afternoon tea and a la carte dinner while onboard, breakfast with lodge stays and an skilled tour supervisor. View the itinerary here.
The ultimate verdict
Riviera’s epic journey from Good to Rome, by land and by sea, is ideal for the traveller eager to calm down with the specialists caring for organising an adventurous itinerary staffed with educated and enthusiastic native guides.
As nearly all excursions are included within the value, there is no such thing as a must e-book forward. Travellers have the liberty to make up their thoughts on the spur of the second.
This intimate small ship, the place cruisers rapidly make new associates, is ready to entry coves and ports past the attain of the big cruise ships.
Disclosure: Our voyage was sponsored by Riviera Travel.
