When you embark on a Costa Smeralda cruise you have to place all luxury pretense aside and transport yourself to the land of pizza, pasta and Fellini. This is a ship where fashionistas stroll the corridors while flocks of energetic ragazzi e ragazze play on waterslides and in game rooms. All the greatest hits of Italy are here and, if you can get past some of the cultural differences, Americans like us can jump head first into the Italian mashup.

We love eating Italian food so much that we’ve built a good portion of our website around pasta in Emilia-Romagna, pizza in Naples, truffle hunts, risotto and generous amounts of vino. Costa ships like the Smeralda serve plenty of Italian cuisine and they do it well.