I'm going to the Mediterranean!!

That's right, you read that correctly! In July, my friend and I are flying to Barcelona for a few days and then embarking on the Princess Ruby for a 12 day cruise of the Mediterranean. We can't wait. I was planning to either do South America this summer or Europe and as I learned by experience last summer, I'd much rather travel with a buddy then solo. Although cruising is not my travel mode of choice, it works when you're on a time crunch and want to see a lot of fun places. My summer is pretty open, but my friend is bound by a work schedule and could only manage 2 and a half weeks off so we decided on a cruise to best fit our food and lodging needs.

I'm sure we could go to Europe on our own and possibly see more places in that time, but we really wanted to do the Mediterrenean and neither of us are into the hostel thing...ick! I will stay in them if I have to but I prefer clean places and privacy. I'm sure all of you budget travelers and backpackers are cringing by now but we worked around what we wanted this summer. Perhaps one day I will venture into the hostel world, but with the experiences I've had so far with them, I'm not quite ready. But, we did get a very good deal on everything :)

We leave in mid-July and will be there until the end of July. It actually works out nice for me to not be gone the whole summer so I can spend some time on local day trips. I've lived in Northern Virginia most of my life and there is still so many things I've never done so I'm working on a staycation agenda. Here is my line up for our cruise:
Barcelona, Spain
Monte Carlo, Monaco
Florence/Pisa, Italy
Naples, Italy
Rome, Italy
Venice, Italy
Mykonos, Greece
Athens, Greece
Istanbul, Turkey
Ephesus, Turkey

If anyone has been to any of these places and can offer advice on must sees (as we will only be spending a dew days, or day at each place) please comment and let me know your recommendations.