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Empires of the Mediterranean

Aboard Viking Star with Viking Ocean Cruises

Departure Date

15 April 2025

Duration

9 Nights

Fly Cruise From

£5,290pp

Cruise Reference

ART-8EMVI12

Cruise Overview

Venice is a city unlike any other.

No matter how often you've seen it in photos and films, the real thing is more dreamlike than you could imagine.

With canals where streets should be, water shimmers everywhere.

The fabulous palaces and churches reflect centuries of history in what was a wealthy trading center between Europe and the Orient.

Getting lost in the narrow alleyways is a quintessential part of exploring Venice, but at some point you'll almost surely end up in Piazza San Marco, where tourists and locals congregate for a coffee or an aperitif.
Today a port town surrounded by industrial suburbs, Koper nevertheless warrants a visit.

The Republic of Venice made Koper the regional capital during the 15th and 16th centuries, and the magnificent architecture of the Old Town bears witness to the spirit of those times.The most important buildings are clustered around Titov trg, the central town square.

Here stands the Cathedral, which can be visited daily from 7 to noon and 3 to 7, with its fine Venetian Gothic facade and bell tower dating back to 1664.

Across the square the splendid Praetor's Palace, formerly the seat of the Venetian Grand Council, combines Gothic and Renaissance styles.

From the west side of Titov trg, the narrow, cobbled Kidriceva ulica brings you down to the seafront.
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.

Cruise Itinerary

Aboard Viking Star

Launch Year: 2015 Length: 227 Width: 29 Currency: EUR Capacity: 930 Crew Count: 465 Deck Count: 9 Cabin Count: 455

Expand your horizons on this comfortable, award-winning ship, intimate and thoughtfully created by experienced nautical architects and designers to enrich your interaction with your destination in every way.

Viking Star Facilities

Viking Star Includes

Cabin Details

Sleep easy in a comfortable king-size bed with fine cotton linens for the sweetest dreams. Elegant décor and calm colours create the perfect sanctuary (because lazy days are often the best days). Wake up to breakfast in bed (24-hour room service is complimentary). Tune in to the latest technology, with free Wi-Fi and TV with movies on demand. Your generous ensuite has a shower that drenches you, heated floor and fluffy towels to warm you and indulgent lotions to pamper you. Bathroom bliss.

Whichever stateroom you choose, you can look forward to a private sanctuary of understated elegance, one that features all the comforts of home and your own spacious veranda.

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