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February 27, 2023

During the days of the Sanremo Festival, the Costa Smeralda offered its guests a unique experience: watching the show live on the elegant floating stage board set up for the occasion. Four great Italian music artists performed on board and there was no shortage of special guests and surprises for everyone present.

The protagonist and setting of this event was the majestic Costa Smeralda, which thanks to its wide open spaces was the ideal place to serve as a floating stage for this event. Costa Smeralda, together with her sister ship Costa Toscana, is the largest and most innovative ship in the Costa Crociere fleet. Guests were pampered by Costa staff, always attentive to the needs of all passengers, who left nothing to chance; especially on a special occasion like this.

Living this experience was something unique, an atmosphere of parties, events, shows and above all lots of music! An unprecedented event to witness the 73rd edition of the Festival live. The dream of every fan of the Sanremo festival is to attend the show; but to live this first-hand experience on a cruise ship board was certainly something unforgettable.

We find out day by day what happened at this cruise-event Cruising Journal’s account.

On Wednesday, February 8th 2023, the Costa Smeralda left the port of Savona for the “Music for your eyes” cruise: an exclusive event to let all guests experience the magic of the Sanremo festival. It was time to embark all passengers as soon as possible so that in the morning, the ship leaves for Sanremo. In the meantime, we joined our reserved balcony cabin, number 14256 on the Venezia deck and allowed ourselves a tasty lunch at the “La Sagra dei Sapori” buffet and some relaxation at the Pasticceria Amarillo while waiting to arrive in Sanremo at the most beautiful time: sunset.

Among the guests there is an atmosphere of anticipation for tonight’s event on board: the live concert of Fedez that so many are waiting for! Before that, however, a mouth-watering appointment awaits us on deck 6 at the Colosseum: one of the great masters of Italian patisserie, Iginio Massari, who reveals the secrets of one of the most popular desserts during the festive season… and not only: Panettone. We participated in the talk show: “Panettone senza confine”, with the presence of Giovanni Cavalleri , Fabrizio Galla and Riccardo Bellaera, the corporate pastry chef of Costa Crociere.

We get ready for dinner at the il Meneghino restaurant where the menu offers Ligurian specialties in honor of the Sanremo evening that awaits us and to conclude the dessert, a specialty signed by Iginio Massari himself, is the “cannolo scomposto”, a sort of reinterpretation of the classic cannolo Sicilian, but designed especially to be eaten with a spoon… truly a delicacy!

At deck 18 on the Costa Smeralda beach, everything is ready for the live broadcast of the Festival and the super guest of the evening is Fedez! The lights go down and the countdown begins: 3-2-1 we are live on Rai 1 and the excitement is incredible! Fedez starts his rap song and is greeted by the audience’s warm applause and the party begins: the whole Lido di Costa Smeralda is in delirium. At the end of the television connection, the party continued with a medley of Fedez’s hits that literally made everyone go wild with dancing and choruses in time to the music. It was the evening to remember.

The alarm rings late the next day because we stayed up late, but it was worth it to take part as protagonists in Fedez’s enthralling show, and as soon as we woke up, we look at the day’s appointments: today an interesting photography workshop awaits us with the professionals of Canon Italia. We attended two very interesting seminars on how to give the best effects to photos on a cruise: the first focused on how to take the ideal portrait photo and the second for all food enthusiasts, how to “eat with your eyes” and take the best shots of the delicacies served here on the ship.

Between one shot and another, it’s already time for dinner and we enjoy ourselves with a delicious pizza at the Pizzeria Pummid’oro on deck 8. Excellent traditional Italian pizzas are freshly baked here, the choice of flavours really varied, but I never give up the classic Margherita di Bufala with cherry tomatoes, served with a refreshing beer!

And we are already excited for tonight’s event: on the floating stage of the Costa Smeralda, the super guest is Guè Pequeno. Once you enter the lido, the atmosphere is already alive! dj Ludovica Pagani opens the evening with an enthralling DJ set. The countdown begins. Guè arrives, acclaimed by all those present and super-loved by the very young, and we start to get wild with the song of the moment “Mollami” this single is in fact reaching highest places in the Italian’s charts, and then a medley with Guè’s greatest hits begins, ending with a dancing evening at the Coliseum to the rhythm of music and fun.

Friday, February 10th welcomes us with a beautiful radiant sun that illuminates Sanremo in all its beauty and it is the day of our excursion organized by Costa Crociere “Sanremo a caccia di vip” so we go down accompanied by the boats that take us to the Sanremo port, where we walk a little to one of the best known and most seen on TV spots: the famous Teatro Ariston, which allows us to catch a glimpse of some singers running past in front of the theater waiting to get ready for rehearsals. Here in front there are really many fans and spectators waiting to be able to see their favorite star and try to take a selfy with them. We then have the opportunity to stroll through the streets of Sanremo and notice that in front of every club, bar or shop there is always someone singing, there is music everywhere and it’s beautiful! Walking along, we arrive at other symbolic places of the city, the Casinò di Sanremo festively decorated with the famous Sanremo flowers.

Back on board we begin to prepare for a special dinner that awaits us in typical Japanese style at the Teppanyaki restaurant, one of the most popular restaurants on board, where you can admire the mastery of Japanese chefs at first hand. Guests can choose from 3 different types of menus: classic Teppanyaki, chef’s Teppanyaki and Vegetarian; there is a lot to choose from to satisfy every palate and be enchanted by the skill of the chefs who perform an enthralling cooking show with acrobatics and culinary magic tricks… a must-try!

But there is no more time to lose, as tonight’s performance by singers and record producers Takagi & Ketra awaits us. For the occasion, the Beach Club of Costa Smeralda has been set up in a Pool Party theme and the pool completely invaded by colourful inflatables. A beautiful location and everyone is ready to get the party started upon the arrival of the guests Takagi & Ketra, who during the live broadcast of the Festival got everyone dancing and then performed the best of all their hits. The evening ends with an exclusive Silent Party, one of the most awaited events on the Costa Smeralda board. So we put on our headphones and were ready to dance until the break of dawn.

Saturday, February 11th is the last day on the Costa Smeralda board and above all the day of the Festival final. There is a lot of expectation in the air and above all a lot of curiosity to find out who will be the winner of this edition. But we are curious to see the last performance that will take place on this cruise event. The super – guest of this will be Salmo, who is going to present his new single.

In the morning, we enjoy a bit of relaxation walking along the wonderful Passeggiata volare on a beautiful sunny morning, but we have to rush off because a super chef awaits us at the theatre, who signs and reviews all the menus served on Costa Crociere ships board. We are talking about Michelin-starred chef Bruno Barbieri, who with his charm and charisma manages to win the applause of the entire audience.

Telling anecdotes and experiences, culinary and otherwise, the chef recalls with great joy the years he spent working on cruise ships board: “That’s where all my passion for cooking started…” says Barbieri, who is then joined by another figure much loved by Costa Smeralda passengers: the master of haute patisserie Iginio Massari. Maestro Massari held two workshops giving participants the chance to experiment and create delicacies from the world of pastry with him: ladyfingers and custard. Speaking of desserts served on board, he anticipates what will be the special dessert dedicated to the final evening: Il Dolce Sanremo; white cream, Avola almonds, strawberries from Emilia Romagna and soaked sponge cake underneath. Our mouths are already watering!

Once the talk show is over, everything is ready for the final evening! In addition to the singers, the Italian cuisine stars Bruno Barbieri and Iginio Massari are on board, along with influencer Tommaso Zorzi, the dancer Valentina Vernia and the record producer Mara Maionchi. Everyone is ready at the Costa Smeralda beach to attend the final evening of this cruise, and when the connection to the Festival begins, the party explodes! We welcome with great applause the eagerly awaited super guest: Salmo, who presents his new single, creating an exciting concert for everyone present.

The volume of the music turned down, the show lights came down, everyone applauded after the performance and headed towards the Theatre to watch the live broadcast from the Ariston and find out who the winner of this Festival would be. In the meantime, the Costa Smeralda left Saremo and set sail for Savona, where it arrived in the early morning of Sunday. We are sure that we will miss all these emotions: this cruise has made us experience unforgettable emotions in time with the music, it has given us a unique atmosphere, which has accompanied us all these days together with the courtesy and attention reserved for us by Costa Crociere, we are already looking forward to the next cruise-event “Music for your eyes”.

Don’t miss further updates, news, events and reviews of Costa Crociere on board Cruising Journal with photos, videos and cruises on offer.

Giulia Pasetto

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