Small is beautiful
Caroline Hendrie skips around the Med on a slick new yacht that squeezes into all the best places
Our stroll after dinner took us around Portoferraio harbour – small and sheltered, it was described by Nelson as the safest in the world. Still warm at nearly 10pm in mid-October, there was a lively buzz from quayside drinkers. Soon we reached the spot where our day had started on Elba, Italy’s thirdbiggest island.
A gaggle of us on this Mediterranean cruise had risen early to go shopping for our supper, and within minutes of stepping down the gangway, Chef Li was negotiating with fishermen selling from their boats.
We then walked to a bakery for schiaccia briaca, a boozy fruitand-nut cake that gets its rosy colour from lashings of sweet red Elban wine, before heading to a delicatessen.
Serving fresh fish and local delicacies along the way is impossible for big ships with thousands to feed, but we were only 100 passengers aboard Emerald Azzurra, the first ocean-going ship from Emerald, an Australian, familyowned line that until now has specialised in river cruises. And what a ship! Within its decks are 50 large cabins – all but six with balconies – and on this weeklong cruise from Civitavecchia, near Rome, to Nice it was hard to believe it was full, with plenty of room for everyone. Azzurra’s clever design – airy and spacious yet nifty enough to get into small ports most cruise ships cannot reach – meant the yacht was always at the heart of things. So on Elba it was easy to pop back to the ship for a swim and out again to stroll up to Napoleon’s elegant villa. At anchor in Portofino we were whisked ashore by tender in a trice, having the pink-and-yellowwashed village all to ourselves. Returning to the quayside, we saw about 1,000 passengers arriving on ferries from the big ships docked in Genoa. It was time to return to Azzurra and succumb to smugness about the exclusivity of our yacht. Walking tours were included too. When docked in Porto Ercole in Tuscany, eight of us hiked to 15th century Forte Filippo. From our mooring in Corsica, a little road train whisked us up to the old town for a walking tour that ended with robust local wine in a cliffside bar. And in Menton on the French Riviera, our tour took us to a beautiful covered market surrounded by palm trees and groaning with fine foods, as well as to see the Wedding Hall in the town hall, decorated by Jean Cocteau in the 1950s. Then I jumped on one of the ship’s electric bikes for a spin along the promenade – almost to the Italian border.
◼️ Caroline Hendrie was a guest of Emerald Cruises. Azzurra’s sister ship, Emerald Sakara, will sail on May 25, 2024, for seven nights from Nice to Rome from €5,530pp, including wine or beer with meals, flights, transfers and excursions.
See emeraldcruises.com