Cuisines Of Europe

Aboard Seven Seas Voyager with Regent Seven Seas Cruises

Departure Date

5 October 2024

Duration

10 Nights

Fly Cruise From

£7,729pp

Cruise Reference

ART-3CURE14

Cruise Overview

Up until the end of World War I, Trieste was the only port of the vast Austro-Hungarian Empire and therefore a major industrial and financial center.

In the early years of the 20th century, Trieste and its surroundings also became famous by their association with some of the most important names of Italian literature, such as Italo Svevo, and English and German letters.

James Joyce drew inspiration from the city's multiethnic population, and Rainer Maria Rilke was inspired by the seacoast west of the city.

Although it has lost its importance as a port and a center of finance, it has never fully lost its roll as an intellectual center.

The streets hold a mix of monumental, neoclassical, and art-nouveau architecture built by the Austrians during Trieste's days of glory, granting an air of melancholy stateliness to a city that lives as much in the past as the present.
Dalmatia's capital for more than 1,000 years, Zadar is all too often passed over by travelers on their way to Split or Dubrovnik.

What they miss out on is a city of more than 73,000 that is remarkably lovely and lively despite—and, in some measure, because of—its tumultuous history.

The Old Town, separated from the rest of the city on a peninsula some 4 km (2½ miles) long and just 1,640 feet wide, is bustling and beautiful: the marble pedestrian streets are replete with Roman ruins, medieval churches, palaces, museums, archives, and libraries.

Parts of the new town are comparatively dreary, a testament to what a world war followed by decades of communism, not to mention a civil war, can do to the architecture of a city that is 3,000 years old.

A settlement had already existed on the site of the present-day city for some 2,000 years when Rome finally conquered Zadar in the 1st century BC; the foundations of the forum can be seen today.

Before the Romans came the Liburnians had made it a key center for trade with the Greeks and Romans for 800 years.

In the 3rd century BC the Romans began to seriously pester the Liburnians, but required two centuries to bring the area under their control.

During the Byzantine era, Zadar became the capital of Dalmatia, and this period saw the construction of its most famous church, the 9th-century St.

Donat's Basilica.

It remained the region's foremost city through the ensuing centuries.

The city then experienced successive onslaughts and occupations—both long and short—by the Osogoths, the Croatian-Hungarian kings, the Venetians, the Turks, the Habsburgs, the French, the Habsburgs again, and finally the Italians before becoming part of Yugoslavia and, in 1991, the independent republic of Croatia.

Zadar was for centuries an Italian-speaking city, and Italian is still spoken widely, especially by older people.

Indeed, it was ceded to Italy in 1921 under the Treaty of Rapallo (and reverted to its Italian name of Zara).

Its occupation by the Germans from 1943 led to intense bombing by the Allies during World War II, which left most of the city in ruins.

Zadar became part of Tito's Yugoslavia in 1947, prompting many Italian residents to leave.

Zadar's most recent ravages occurred during a three-month siege by Serb forces and months more of bombardment during the Croatian-Serbian war between 1991 and 1995.

But you'd be hard-pressed to find outward signs of this today in what is a city to behold.

There are helpful interpretive signs in English all around the Old Town, so you certainly won't feel lost when trying to make sense of the wide variety of architectural sites you might otherwise pass by with only a cursory look.
Backed by imposing mountains, tiny Kotor lies hidden from the open sea, tucked into the deepest channel of the Bokor Kotorska (Kotor Bay), which is Europe's most southerly fjord.

To many, this town is more charming than its sister UNESCO World Heritage Site, Dubrovnik, retaining more authenticity, but with fewer tourists and spared the war damage and subsequent rebuilding which has given Dubrovnik something of a Disney feel.Kotor's medieval Stari Grad (Old Town) is enclosed within well-preserved defensive walls built between the 9th and 18th centuries and is presided over by a proud hilltop fortress.

Within the walls, a labyrinth of winding cobbled streets leads through a series of splendid paved piazzas, rimmed by centuries-old stone buildings.

The squares are now haunted by strains from buskers but although many now house trendy cafés and chic boutiques, directions are still given medieval-style by reference to the town’s landmark churches.In the Middle Ages, as Serbia's chief port, Kotor was an important economic and cultural center with its own highly regarded schools of stonemasonry and iconography.

From 1391 to 1420 it was an independent city-republic and later, it spent periods under Venetian, Austrian, and French rule, though it was undoubtedly the Venetians who left the strongest impression on the city's architecture.

Since the breakup of Yugoslavia, some 70% of the stone buildings in the romantic Old Town have been snapped up by foreigners, mostly Brits and Russians.

Porto Montenegro, a new marina designed to accommodate some of the world’s largest super yachts, opened in nearby Tivat in 2011, and along the bay are other charming seaside villages, all with better views of the bay than the vista from Kotor itself where the waterside is congested with cruise ships and yachts.

Try sleepy Muo or the settlement of Prčanj in one direction around the bay, or Perast and the Roman mosaics of Risan in the other direction.

Cruise Itinerary

Aboard Seven Seas Voyager

Launch Year: 2003 Length: 204 Width: 29 Currency: USD Capacity: 680 Crew Count: 469 Deck Count: 8 Cabin Count: 340

Discover the wide variety of inviting spaces and activities on Seven Seas Voyager®. Sip fresh java at Deck 5’s Coffee Connection, run on the open-air track on Deck 12, or head to Serene Spa & Wellness™ spa on Deck 6 for some pampering.

Seven Seas Voyager® is designed so you can enjoy the outdoors just as much as the indoors while you cruise. Take a look at all the places you can watch the sunset at the end of another perfect day, including your private balcony

Seven Seas Voyager Facilities

Seven Seas Voyager Includes

Cabin Details

Every suite on Seven Seas Voyager® has a private balcony along with marble bath accents and roomy closets. Sip a cup of coffee or glass of wine and dine alfresco on room service as you take in the endless views and fresh sea air.

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