Every day sees the line between fact and fiction blur on this captivating itinerary. Legends surround the Barbary apes in Gibraltar, the Tower of Pisa still defies gravity, historians argue whether Marco Polo really hailed from Korcula, and bookworms and movie buffs alike step ashore in search of Captain Corelli’s Cephalonia. Forums and Roman villas, wall-ringed citadels from Valletta to Dubrovnik, however, are all very real, as are the pleasures of a Mykonos sunset or Byzantine jewels that glint at you in Istanbul.

*At these ports you will be taken ashore by ship’s or local tender.