Travel: Cruise from Athens to Monte Carlo

Published on Sunday 26 June 2011 12:20

A flock of fat pigeons arced lazily into the sky above the façade of Venice's Piazza San Marco and flew alongside the Silver Spirit as we edged our way slowly upstream on a perfect summer's day.

From ashore, a moody accordion filled the humid air with something resembling a serenade before it was lost among the cafes and crumbling palaces of the amazing sea-city. Motor boats and ferries chugged alongside us, or crossed ahead and behind like so many scrambling water bugs with urgent things to do.

On board, the Silversea staff dispensed welcoming cocktails to passengers gazing in awe at the panorama unfolding all around us. Some lounged in the hot tubs sipping champagne, but most of us were drawn to the railings to take in the pageant below. It was one of those moments on which it is impossible to hang a price tag.

This Venetian arrival was the culmination of a trip that had begun a week earlier. On a warm July afternoon, passengers had sauntered over the red carpeted gangway of the Silver Spirit in Civitavecchia, Rome's port, to be greeted with glasses of chilled champagne as she sat poised for an early evening departure.

There were six mega cruise ships in port, each with a swarm of passengers waiting to board in the searing heat.

By contrast, passengers for the Spirit simply walked straight on board. The big ships were still taking on passengers when we slipped quietly away into a purple twilight, with a sax player on board flooding the balmy evening with cool, sweet soul as we set off on an epic Italian adventure.

Brim full of beauty, art deco interiors and a joie de vivre that is impossible to manufacture, the Spirit is the newest and largest ship in Silversea's fleet of all inclusive boutique ships.

The concept is as simple as it is sublime; create ships that offer a vast amount of personal space – typically twice as much as any other ship – and fill them with the best of everything, from gourmet food to Egyptian silk cotton sheets in every suite. There are no mere cabins for these ships; every suite is outside, and more than 90 per cent of them have private balconies.

Those rooms have expansive living areas and marble-lined bathrooms with Bulgari products. Add a pair of plasma screen TVs pre-loaded with more than 500 different films, a complimentary mini-bar and a welcoming bottle of champagne, and you begin to get the idea.

There is a room service menu the size of a stretch limo, and you really can have onion soup and steak for breakfast if you want, as well as a balcony with lounging chairs and, of course, a pair of footrests. The bath towels are big enough to lose yourself in, and soft enough to make the idea enjoyable, too. In short, every room is a little slice of heaven, a destination in its own right.

The casual luxury filters through the entire ship like fine perfume. The rear upper decks feature sofas, chairs and padded loungers that look as if they were lifted intact from South Beach, and they present a real hazard to any kind of activity.

Everywhere you look there is some adjacent bit of comfortable furniture that just begs you to take the weight off your feet. It's wickedly indulgent, and hard to resist.

Inside, the Silver Spirit is just as welcoming. The main bar opposite the lobby is long, lavish and sprinkled with tables and chairs that look as if they were lifted intact from some 1930s ocean liner, and then polished to perfection.

There is a stunning supper club, with a light bite menu, a sit-up bar and a genuine torch singer whose voice filled that room each night like a quiet storm. The nights here were intimate affairs a million miles removed from the malarkey that passes for entertainment on many of the big ships these days.

Food was stupendous everywhere, from the formal main dining room where you could eat at any time from 7pm onwards, to more casual options. No formal table assignments, just sit where you want with whom you want. There was another upper deck supper club, and an atmospheric outdoor grill overlooking the pool, with a canopy of stars above and a trio of hot tubs just below.

Service was deft and flawless. Imagine the Ritz with propellers, and you get the gist of the Silversea experience. All drinks and speciality coffees are folded in with the fare, 24 hours a day.

There were almost no grating loudspeaker announcements or holiday camp games; the Silver Spirit is a stylish lady, suffused with a generous helping of genuine Italian hospitality from the captain and crew at all levels.

Each day revealed a stunning new panorama. Sorrento remains a favourite, with its spindly seaside lidos jutting out from vast, unyielding cliffs framed by oleander and wisteria.

From on top, amid the scent of lemon trees and the aroma of espresso, the Silver Spirit looked like a beautiful toy, adrift on a sea of gleaming glass. It was summer on the Riviera, and the ice cream never tasted better anywhere.

Taormina has the amazing remains of an 8th-century Greco-Roman amphitheatre that looks straight down across the sea; with its stunted Doric columns looming stark and inviolate against a pale blue sky. In town, lines full of washing hung limply between rows of stately Italianate houses, with the paint on their faades several amazing shades of terracotta, blue and white, peeling or fading gracefully in the searing Sicilian summer.

Ancient churches with intricate carved statues flanked squares packed with outdoor cafes where tourists gathered to watch mime artists and musicians plying their trade. On such days, reality seems at best a distant memory.

Each night, the sun sank into a sea so perfectly calm that it resembled a field of blazing straw as we lounged on the sofas and enjoyed ice-cold champagne and canaps. I doubt that any leave takings were ever quite this splendid or laid back.

Dubrovnik was a real highlight too, with its massive walls rising from the Aegean. The bustling main street is all marble pavements, bleached almost white by centuries of blistering summer sun, with huge, vaulted buildings and winding alleyways.

Vast hexagonal fountains at either end betray their 14th-century origins, when Dubrovnik was one of the great city-states of the time. Dubrovnik has a mesmerising stance and presence; it really does feel like something from another era.

These thoughts and impressions flowed like fine wine as we made our final, stately procession into the magnificent glut that is Venice. Leaving the Spirit was like being taken off life support, but it was a lifestyle of which any Venetian prince of old would surely have approved.

The Facts

A seven night fly cruise on Silver Spirit from Athens to Monte Carlo costs from 2,778 all inclusive in September (0845 251 0837, www.silversea.com).

Connoisseur Cruising offers a seven- night, all inclusive Silversea cruise from Rome to Athens in an ocean-view suite from 2,528pp, departing 11 Oct 2011 and including flights from Scotland, tel: [phone] quoting SC or e-mail [e-mail]

This article was first published in The Scotsman, 25 June, 2011