By
Rebecca Gibson |
Costa Cruises’ new flagship Costa Diadema made her inaugural visit to the Italian port of La Spezia on 14 November.
Known as the Regina Del Mediterraneo Queen of the Mediterranean), the €550 million newbuild is called at the Ligurian port as part of her maiden voyage, which started after her christening ceremony on 7 November in Genoa.
“La Spezia is a strategic port for Costa,” said Giuseppe Carino, vice president of hotel operations at Costa. “We are working with port authority, municipality and local institutions to develop cruises in La Spezia, as demonstrated by the weekly positioning of our new flagship Costa Diadema, which is the best expression of our new brand positioning, Italy’s finest.”
Costa Diadema will make a total of 55 calls at La Spezia, visiting the port on a weekly basis as part of her seven-day Mediterranean itinerary until November 2015. This will enable Costa to clock up around 236,000 passenger moves at the port, an increase of 26% compared to 2014.
While the ship is berthed in La Spezia, guests will be able to enjoy shore excursions to Cinque Terre, Lucca, Pisa and Florence. They can also opt for a ‘Discovery and Taste’ tour, which explores La Spezia and enable guests to taste ‘farinata’ and local white wine, or a jeep tour to the Apuane Alps. This includes a visit to the Carrara marble quarries and a break to taste croutons with lardo di Colonnata.
“It is a great honour for the port of La Spezia to be able to host Costa’s flagship every week throughout the year,” said Lorenzo Forcieri, chairman of the Port Authority of La Spezia. “Since the beginning of our negotiations for the development of cruises in La Spezia, I have always considered Costa as a key partner. We look at Costa also for our future plans: we want to strengthen our co-operation with the company to offer new shore excursions to let guests discover the city and its territory.”
Two of Costa’s other cruise ships will visit La Spezia during the 2014-2015 winter season. Costa Serena will call at La Spezia and Costa Celebration will visit between 20 March and April 2015.