[784caroline]

WE lived in Europe for 4 years and visited most of the ports/cities that we are going to be visitng (although a number of years have passed) with the exception of Istanbul, Split Croatia and Myknosos. WE are planning a private tour of Istanbul to include the highlights (Palaces, markets etc) as well as Istanbul in the evening. The rest of the places we feel fairly comfortable with taking a train into Rome, subway into athens and the hydrofioil to Capri from naples and use other means of local transportation to get around. Cruise Critic is a big help for learning what to do at Port Cities and how to get around. We have already been to Pompei and that was definitely worth a visit. A big issue in booking tours especially from the ship are they are VERY VERY expensive now with the bad euro/dollar rate.