Costa Diadema arrived in La Spezia

La Spezia - Costa Cruises’ new flagship the Costa Diadema has arrived today in La Spezia for the first time. The new ship – 132,500 gross tonnage, 306 meters in length, 37 meters in breadth and 1862 guests cabins – was built in Fincantieri’s shipyard in Marghera (Venice), with a total investment worth some 550 million euro.

The Costa Diadema is in the Ligurian port as part of her inaugural cruise, after the naming ceremony that took place in Genoa on November 7. From today to the end of November 2015, the Costa Diadema will be calling at La Spezia once a week, making a total of 55 calls, enabling Costa to clock up approximately 236,000 passenger movements in the port, which works out to an increase of 26% compared to 2014. Giuseppe Carino, Vice President Hotel Operations of Costa Crociere S.p.A. commented: “La Spezia is a strategic port for Costa. We are working with Port Authority, Municipality and local institutions for the development of cruises in La Spezia, as demonstrated by the weekly positioning of our new flagship Costa Diadema, which is the best expression of our new brand positioning, Italy’s finest.”

Lorenzo Forcieri, chairman of the Port Authority of La Spezia, stated: “A joyful greeting to the Regina del Mediterraneo (Queen of the Mediterranean). It is a great honor for the port of La Spezia to be able to host Costa’s flagship every week, throughout the year. Since the beginning of our negotiations for the development of cruises in La Spezia, I have always considered Costa Cruises as a key partner. We look at Costa also for our future plans: we want to strengthen our co-operation with the company to offer new shore excursions to let guests discover the city and its territory. “ The ship will arrive in La Spezia at 9.30 am every Friday, departing at 11.30 pm.

The 7-day itinerary of the “Regina del Mediterraneo” include also Savona, Marseille, Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca and Naples. The call at La Spezia will allow guests to visit both the best attractions in the area and the most appreciated historical cities of Tuscany. New types of excursions will be available to satisfy the preferences of every guest. Starting from the “Discovery and Taste” tour in La Spezia, to explore the city and taste the typical “farinata” and local white wine. Another gastronomic tour is the excursion by jeep to the Apuane Alps, with a visit to the characteristic Carrara marble quarries and a break to taste croutons with lardo di Colonnata. The “Easy tour” will allow Guests to visit Florence freely, in a relaxed way. The wide range of excursions include also Cinque Terre, Lucca and Pisa. During winter season 2014-2015, La Spezia will be the port of call also for Costa Serena, with a stopover on November 17, and from March 20 to April 9 2015, for the renovated Costa Celebration, while sailing for their itineraries in the Mediterranean Sea.