Costa Cruises debuts two new tours in Naples

Costa Cruises has partnered with Museo and Real Bosco di Capodimonte in Naples to provide two new weekly shore excursions for cruise guests visiting the Italian city.

The partnership aims to increase the number of international visitors to the Museo di Capodimonte and the adjoining Bosco pastoral park, a UNESCO World Heritage site with botanical species from around the world.

“Our goal in this project is to make it instructive and informative for Italians and foreigners, attracting them here where they can appreciate brilliant examples of artistic schools, visions and techniques from medieval to modern times,” said Sylvain Bellenger, director of Museo and Real Bosco di Capodimonte. “Capodimonte, with its grounds extending 140 hectares, is a place where you can spend the day, enjoying the constant interplay of art and nature. This agreement is a major step forward on the path we set out on some time ago and I am grateful to Costa for sharing and supporting our aims."

Costa’s new ‘The Treasures of Naples: Capodimonte and the treasure of San Gennaro’ excursion will enable guests to take a guided tour of the Museo Reale and the Museo di San Gennaro collection, which comprises works by Neapolitan goldsmiths and silversmiths from the 14th to the 20th centuries.

Meanwhile, guests on the ‘Cycling in the Real Bosco di Capodimonte’ excursion will enjoy a 9km bicycle ride inside the Real Bosco di Capodimonte grounds. Led by experts, the tour will enable them to see the Giardino dei Principi and the Giardino Torre, featuring the original groundsman’s estate with a nursery and orchard.

Both tours will end with food and wine tastings to enable guests to sample local produce from the Neapolitan region.

The guided tours will be available on all Costa itineraries to Naples between now and the end of 2017. In total, Costa Fascinosa, Costa neoClassica, Costa Mediterranea, Costa Luminosa and Costa Deliziosa will make around 80 calls to the city, bringing an estimated 210,000 transit cruise passengers.

“By means of this initiative, Costa Cruises wishes to lend its support to the ambitious goal of the Ministry for Cultural Affairs and the Director of the Museo Sylvain Bellenger, namely the discovery or rediscovery of the splendid cultural legacy of Capodimonte,” said Carlo Schiavon, Costa Cruises’ sales and marketing director. “The two new organised tours will provide a major contribution to efforts in this direction because they will be offered to the tens of thousands of tourists from many countries arriving on our ships in Naples. Through this important partnership, Costa Cruises has confirmed once again its mission as a global ambassador for Italy's finest, enabling cruise guests to appreciate Italian-made excellence both onboard its ships and during stopovers in locations around the country.”