There's more than meets the eye in Savona, a Northwest Italy port city many cruise ship passengers are lucky enough to find themselves in. The giant Fortezza del Priamàr looms over the water, providing a unique welcome. Be sure to stroll through the city's genteel, impressive medieval center, visit the beautiful Savona Cathedral and see marvelous artistic works from centuries past at the Ceramics Museum.
Coimbra, set along the banks of the Mondego River in central Portugal, is a historic city known for its academic legacy and old-world charm. Once the medieval capital of Portugal, it is home to the University of Coimbra, one of the oldest in Europe and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Sagres sits at the southwestern edge of continental Europe in Portugal’s Algarve region, where the Atlantic’s wide horizon meets rugged cliffs and open skies. For centuries this point was linked to maritime adventure and visitors can still feel that sense of discovery in the air. Here, people like Prince Henry the Navigator gathered cartographers, shipbuilders and astronomers in the 1400s to push beyond maps of the known world and shape the early Age of Discovery from Sagres’ dramatic headlands.
Selcuk, a small town in western Turkey’s İzmir Province, is one of the country’s richest destinations for history lovers. It sits at the foot of the ancient city of Ephesus, once one of the great cities of the classical world and home to the Temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.