Costa Smeralda is ready to follow in the footsteps of Costa Deliziosa and Costa Diadema and return to service on October 10. Costa Cruises’ flagship will offer a seven-day itinerary dedicated to the rediscovery of Italy.
For the restart of its flagship Costa Crociere has designed a new one-week itinerary dedicated to the rediscovery of Italy. From October 10th Costa Smeralda will sail five cruises allowing guests to visit beautiful Italian cities of art, enjoy areas and natural parks of rare beauty, as well as taste traditional local cusine and products.
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The first call on the new itinerary is Savona. From here guests can visit other nearby destinations, such as Genoa or Finalborgo. The second is La Spezia, with excursions to the Cinque Terre, Lerici, Florence or Pisa. The next port of call is Cagliari, followed by Naples, with the possibility to visit Sorrento, Pompei and the Royal Palace of Caserta. The last two destinations on the itinerary are Messina, with excursions to the Etna volcano and Taormina, and Civitavecchia, that offers the discovery of Rome and Tarquinia.
Discovering Italy in safety
As with Costa Deliziosa and Costa Diadema, the two Costa ships who have already returned to service, the Costa Safety Protocol will be applied on board Costa Smeralda.
The protocol, developed by the company together with a panel of scientific experts, includes new operational measures tailored to the needs of the COVID-19 situation. These measures are fully compliant with the relevant provisions defined by the Italian and European authorities.
The Costa Safety Protocol considers every aspect of the cruise experience, from booking to returning home. The key measures include antigen swab tests for all guests and crew before embarkation, temperature check while disembarking and returning to the ship, visits to destinations only with protected excursions, physical distancing onboard and at the terminals, reduction in the number of passengers, new ways of using the on-board services, improved sanitization and medical services, use of protective facial-masks when necessary.
About Costa Smeralda
Costa Smeralda, which was christened in Savona on February 22nd, is a tribute to Italy. The ship is the result of an extraordinary creative project designed to exalt and bring the best of Italy to life into a single location. Italian design is also the main feature of the CoDe – Costa Design Museum, the first museum built on a cruise ship. The onboard offer fits perfectly into this extraordinary context: from the Solemio Spa to the areas dedicated to entertainment; from thematic bars – in collaboration with major Italian brands, to the 16 restaurants and areas dedicated to the ‘food experience’, including a new restaurant dedicated to families with children.
Costa Smeralda is also a true travelling ‘smart city’, where sustainable technologies and circular economy concepts are applied to reduce the environmental impact. Thanks to the use of LNG, Costa Smeralda is able to almost completely eliminate emissions of sulfur oxides, particulate matter, nitrogen oxide and CO2. The ship’s entire daily water requirement is met by the direct transformation of sea water through the use of desalinations plants. Energy consumption is reduced to the minimum thanks to an intelligent energy efficiency system. Finally 100% separate waste collection and recycling of materials such as plastic, paper, glass and aluminum is carried out on board.
Starting from November 14th 2020, Costa Smeralda is scheduled to resume her one-week itinerary in Italy, France and Spain, again departing from Savona.