Greek Isles & Italy Cruise with Kosherica Summer 2025

 

ITINERARY

Day 1, Mon
Rome (Civitavecchia), Italy (EMBARK) - Departs 5:00pm

Day 2, Tue

At Sea

Day 3, Wed

Santorini, Greece - Arrives 2:00pm - Departs 10:00pm

Day 4, Thu

Mykonos, Greece - Arrives 8:00am - Departs 8:00pm

Day 5, Fri

Athens (Port of Piraeus), Greece - Arrives 6:00am - Departs 3:00pm

Day 6, Sat

Corfu, Greece - Arrives 12:00pm - Departs 7:00pm

Day 7, Sun

Valletta, Malta - Arrives 1:30pm - Departs 10:00pm

Day 8, Mon

Messina, Italy - Arrives 8:00am - Departs 6:00pm

Day 9, Tue

Naples, Italy - Arrives 6:30am - Departs 4:15pm

Day 10, Wed

Florence/Pisa (Livorno), Italy - Arrives 9:00am - Departs 8:30pm

Day 11, Thu, July 18

Rome (Civitavecchia), Italy - Arrives 6:15am

Rome – Rome was called the “Eternal City” by the ancient Romans because they believed that no matter what happened in the rest of the world, the city of Rome would always remain standing. Exploring the city centre by foot surrounded by glorious monuments and colossal remains takes you back in time to the “glory that was Rome”.

Jewish Rome: The first Jews in Rome came directly from Israel in 160 B. C. It was Chanukah and the Maccabees decided to travel as ambassadors to Rome in order to ask for protection from the Romans against the Syrian King Antiochus who had been giving the Jews in Palestine a hard time. This small group of Jews settled and created the first community in the Golah. All that happened more than 2,000 years ago…and still we thrive here today, after the Inquisition, the persecutions, the Ghetto and the concentration camps. There are only 16,000 Jews in Rome, yet we are the oldest community in this city. We never moved from here. We have been witness to so much change, yet our traditions and values still remain strong while living a Jewish life in a society based around Christianity. The Jewish Rome is, however, more extensive than the ancient perimeter of the ghetto. All over Rome you can attend and visit many temples with different customs – Sephardic, Italian, Moadim – and discover the traces of Jewish presence even in the Roman Forum or the archaeological site of Ostia Antica.

Santorini –  Santorini (or Thera) is one of the most popular travel destinations worldwide and the most visited Greek island.  Located on the southern side of the Aegean sea, Santorini in Greece is a part of the Cyclades islands group. The island was reshaped after a huge eruption of the volcano that occurred in the 17th century B.C. and formed the breathtaking caldera. The landscape of Santorini is definitely one of a kind!

Athens –  Athens is the capital of Greece. It was also at the heart of Ancient Greece, a powerful civilization and empire. The city is still dominated by 5th-century BC landmarks, including the Acropolis, a hilltop citadel topped with ancient buildings like the colonnaded Parthenon temple.

Mykonos – An island of beauty and magic. Mykonos has been known as the island of the winds, and it’s located in the heart of the Cyclades group.

Corfu –  One of the most popular holiday destinations in Greece, Corfu is an island in the Ionian Sea known for its cosmopolitan Old Town, spectacular sandy beaches and beautiful landscapes.

Valletta – Malta’s capital Valletta is a fortified city located on a hilly peninsula between two of the finest natural harbours in the Mediterranean.

Messina – A must-see for cruise ships taking tourists around the Mediterranean. The best way to explore it is on foot, that is why it is also the favorite destination for this kind of tourism.

Naples – Naples, a city in southern Italy, sits on the Bay of Naples. Nearby is Mount Vesuvius, the still-active volcano that destroyed nearby Roman town Pompeii. Dating to the 2nd millennium B.C., Naples has centuries of important art and architecture. The city’s cathedral, the Duomo di San Gennaro, is filled with frescoes. Other major landmarks include the lavish Royal Palace and Castel Nuovo, a 13th-century castle.

Florence/Pisa (Livorno) – One art piece of Jewish themed art dominates this beautiful city is David, created by the artist Michelangelo.
 

Just across the Ponte Vecchio, in the maze of old lanes that face the Pitti Palace, is the via Ramagliau (once called Via dei Giudei or “Street of the Jews”) which remains unchanged from the Renaissance. The streets are about 10 feet wide and are framed in by gray and yellow, three story houses with brown shutters.

The famous Duomo, was started in 1296, and what most people don’t see, are the wooden side doors on the south side of the cathedral, where one can see one Tablet of the Law with the first five commandments written in Hebrew. Another set of carved doors were started in 1425 and finished in 1452. They are the 10 carved panels on the doors of the Baptistery, which represent 10 scenes from the Bible as carved by Lorenzo Ghiberti.

The famous Medici ruler and humanist Lorenzo the Magnificent invited Sephardic Jews to settle in Florence in the fifteenth century because he wanted to have international traders and bankers in the city state. Even when the ghetto existed, restrictions were not so rigorously enforced, so Florence became a safe haven for Jewish refugees fleeing from Spain and the other Papal States. When Napoleon opened the gates of the ghetto, it was not such an enormous change as elsewhere. Again, in Florence the occupation of the Germans meant that about one-fourth of the community, including the rabbi, were sent to the death camps.