Best coffee at sea? Leave it to a luxury ship with Italian origins
The world is replete with food and wine nationalists. The French want nothing to do with any drop that hasn’t emerged from the mystical depths of their own native terroir; no cheese is any good to the Swiss unless it’s riddled with the requisite number of holes; and to the Japanese no rice compares to that grown beneath the magical waters and soils below the rising and radiating sun of their own land.
Then there’s that nation of espresso-sipping extremists who hiss like a fully steamed frothing wand at any coffee poured beyond their own precious shore.
Silver Muse’s Italian heritage evident in its coffee offering.
But, hang on, I’m not referring to the Italians, in that last instance. No, I’m singling out Australians – yes, us – whose adoration of the world’s most beloved bean, and our capacity to bore everyone endlessly about it, remains boundless.
We have eclipsed even the Italians in our coffee fixation, with the condition markedly manifesting itself whenever we take a cruise.
Allow me to explain.
When cruise lines, mostly American-owned, entered the Australian market in great numbers some years ago the one most common complaint was the poor standard of the coffee.
Some cruise lines even went as far as to engage local baristas to placate their Australian passengers (others just kept serving crap coffee).
Barista-made … only genuine Italian espresso machines onboard.
Frankly, qualifying, as I do, to the extent that I’m one of those antipodean espresso extremists and I reside in an Australian inner-city Italian-Australian enclave, I have to say the standard of coffee on cruise lines can still leave me as cold as a Starbucks grande-iced almond caramel latte (and, yes, Starbucks operate outlets on at least one US-based cruise line).
However, I’ve finally found an exception and I have the original espresso extremists, the Italians, of course, to thank for it.
The discovery comes aboard Silver Muse, part of the Silversea brand of cruise ships. It has Italian heritage, though is now owned by the US-based Royal Caribbean group.
Silversea’s Silver Muse in Sydney Harbour.
I’m aboard the ship for a 14-day cruise, not beginning in Rome but starting from Auckland, a city that knows its coffee from a country that claims to have invented the flat white.
We’re sailing down the east coast of New Zealand, then across to Tasmania and onto Sydney, with more than a few sea days to get to know Silver Muse.
The ship, built in 2017 and accommodating a manageable 600 or so passenger capacity and more than 400 crew, is fitted throughout with genuine Italian espresso machines.
What’s more, its coffee of choice is Trieste’s venerable, if expensive, Illy brand, and, yes, the baristas not only make flat whites they also know that a macchiato is a style of coffee, not a Japanese raincoat.
My preference is for a cruise line that celebrates and adheres to its national origins. Too many cruise ships are, to use the American term, straight from a “cookie cutter”, with the only point of difference being the size of the go-kart circuit or the length of the water slides. Each to their own.
Of course, there’s a pizzeria … a cruise line that celebrates its national origins.
Silversea, along with the Norwegian Viking, the British Cunard and the French Ponant, strongly maintains its national origins. At times, they can make you feel, what with all of the trappings of the country of origin, like you’re sailing in a whole additional destination to the one outlined in the itinerary.
Silversea itself was launched in 1994 by Antonio Lefebvre d’Ovidio, a resident of Rome, Italy (there is a Rome, Georgia) as the world’s first all-inclusive, ultra-luxury global cruise line, with gratuities, drinks and selected shore excursions and other elements included in the fare. It’s something that’s been widely emulated by other cruise lines.
Silversea was absorbed by the US-based Royal Caribbean Group in July 2018, when that giant American cruise line, known for its gargantuan ships, purchased two-thirds of the Italian cruise line’s shares, subsequently acquiring the remainder in July 2020.
To the credit of Royal Caribbean, which likes to refer to the upscale Silversea as its “jewel in the crown” – and rightly so – it has maintained a considerable extent of its Italian legacy.
Ahead of its time … Silversea launched as the world’s first all-inclusive, luxury cruise line.
I’d love to see Silversea’s fleet of ships accentuate its Italian heritage even further, but that’s coming from something of an Italophile.
Yet, to be fair, Silver Muse’s expressions of its Italianness don’t end at the beloved brew. Bathrooms in each suite (never a cabin these days, and they do come with baths) include Bulgari toiletries, Ortigia Sicilian bath products and signature Etro white bathrobes. Viva Italia and all that.
For a ship belonging to such a conservative cruise line, with a colour that rarely ventures beyond brown and beige (not a bad thing), Silver Muse also features a surprisingly unconventional, largely contemporary art collection with virtually every piece throughout the vessel created by an Italian artist.
Unsurprisingly, toiletries are from Italian luxury house Bulgari.
Not every work impresses, such as blowhard sculptured pieces fashioned from hair-dryers. However, such pieces share wall space throughout the ship with more traditional and gorgeous tapestries depicting historical Italian locales and themes.
Many works from the collection adorn the walls of the popular drawing room-like the Arts Cafe on deck eight, a popular spot on the ship for coffee-seeking Australian passengers, and which also offers gourmet sandwiches, canapes, parfaits and pastries.
The tradition of art aboard Silversea’s fleet of seven ships has been maintained aboard the line’s newest and most luxurious vessel, Silver Nova.
It was launched last year and features a collection of nearly 2000 works, making it a true floating art gallery.
Italian artists get top billing.
Before you assume that Italian cuisine is the only variety of food and wine served aboard Silver Muse, fear not, as there are fine dining restaurants onboard serving Japanese, pan-Asian and French dishes, too.
But I find myself drawn back at dinner time to La Terrazza, where fresh pasta, such as excellent pappardelle with duck ragu, is served daily and where guests can dine, when conditions allow, al fresco on the deck outside the main dining room right at the mid-deck stern of this sleek and compact ship.
Elsewhere, overlooking the pool deck, you’ll find a gelateria and a pizzeria (one night the kitchen runs out of rocket as a topping and, mamma mia, has to substitute wilted lettuce. Don’t tell the Italians).
Although my tasteful deluxe verandah suite doesn’t contain an espresso machine or coffee of any kind, the perpetually cheerful butler, decked out in black tails (really) is more than happy to deliver a double-shot flat white to the room each morning of the cruise, even including the final day in Sydney.
True to Silversea form, it’s served in a fine white crockery cup complete with a matching lid to keep the coffee warm en route to the suite.
On my cruise, its Italian origin extends all the way to the bridge of the ship itself with its Continental crew headed by the avuncular Captain Giovanni Schiaffino, who hails from Genoa in Italy.
Pasta heaven at La Terrazza.
“It’s the Italian-style details [on Silver Muse] that make the difference,” says the tennis-loving Captain Schiaffino, who managed to catch the 2024 Australian Open victory by compatriot Jannik Sinner on TV during one of his Australasian voyages this summer.
“I love doing things aboard the ship like walking the decks and seeing the paintings that recall all the most important Italian cities. They make me feel at home even in the most distant places in the world.
“I come from a family in which my grandfather was a captain like my father. I can easily answer that being a citizen from a country surrounded by the ocean, we bring tradition, experience, passion and love for the sea.”
Back on the bridge, inside the pantry, perhaps not surprisingly, there’s a well-utilised espresso machine and, typical of most Italians, Captain Schiaffino, is particular about the nature of his coffee, and, for that matter, his pizza.
The ultimate coffee accompaniment at La Terrazza ... cannoli.
“Absolutely a single espresso without sugar,” he says. “Starting in the morning as soon as I wake up, and then at 10am, and strictly after lunch and dinner and always in company, sharing even a few minutes with someone. I love any kind of pizza but never will you see me eat one with pineapple on top.”
I’m with Captain Giovanni, but I’m sure if you pined for pineapple on your pizza aboard Silver Muse, your request could be satisfied, such is the willingness to please each and every passenger.
Viva Italia.
The writer travelled as a guest of Silversea Cruises and The Hotel Britomart Auckland.
THE DETAILS
CRUISE
A 14-day Auckland to Sydney, via Hobart, Port Arthur and Burnie, Tasmania cruise with Silversea aboard Silver Muse from $7350 a passenger. The itinerary includes calls to the New Zealand cities of Gisborne, Napier, Wellington, Lyttelton (Christchurch) and Dunedin with alternative voyages including the sounds of Fiordland. See silversea.com
STAY
For pre-cruise accommodation, consider a night or two at 99-room The Hotel Britomart. The CBD boutique-style, eco-minded lodging is within walking distance of Auckland’s Princess Wharf cruise terminal. Rooms from $336 a night. See thehotelbritomart.com
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