On Friday, May 14, Costa Cruises' ship Luminosa arrived at Port Trieste Italy for her final preparations ahead of the restart of sailings over the weekend.
Luminosa is scheduled to depart on Sunday, May 16, out of Trieste, as well as the following day from Bari on a 7-day Eastern Mediterranean itinerary visiting destinations in Greece - Corfu Island, Piraeus-Athens, Mykonos Island, Katakolon-Olympia.
Luminosa is the second Costa ship to restart operations. The company resumed on May 1 with its LNG-powered flagship Smeralda, and 2 more liners are expected to resume operations from Italy this summer.
Smeralda offers Italian ports-only 3- and 4-day mini-cruises, combinable (as B2Bs) and 7-day voyages calling at Savona, La Spezia, Civitavecchia-Rome, Naples, Messina Sicily, Cagliari Sardinia. The Italian itinerary program was extended through July 3, when the liner returns to 7-day roundtrips to Savona, Marseille, Barcelona, Palma, Palermo Sicily, Civitavecchia-Rome.
Deliziosa is scheduled to start on June 26, offering a 7-day itinerary with Venice, an extended 1-day and 1-night stop in Mykonos, followed by Katakolon, Corfu, Bari.
Costa Firenze starts on July 4 (inaugural cruise) with an all-Italian itinerary visiting Savona, Civitavecchia, Palermo, Naples, Messina, Cagliari. From September 12 through mid-October, Firenze offers 7-day sailings visiting Savona, Civitavecchia, Naples, Ibiza, Barcelona, Marseilles.
All sailings follow the procedures that are set out in the Costa Safety Protocol developed by the line together with Italian authorities and scientific experts, which features enhanced health & safety measures for all aspects of the experience, both onboard and ashore. The protocol includes swabbing all passengers prior to embarkation and after half of the trip, visiting destinations with protected shore excursions, new ways of using onboard services, mask-wearing when necessary.