A Mid-Summer Night's Sex Cruise...?

Two hundred and eightypassengers that paid 990 euro per person (about $1200.00 US dollars) and made up of a mix of heterosexual singles and couples. Add twenty European porno-divas and one cruise-liner that hit the high seas for four days in March (March 8-11 to be exact) Tour operators were referring to it as the "hard cruise" and all the cabins sold out in a matter of days.

Baby, the Love Boat was NEVER like this.

The Hard Cruise is the brain child of Giuseppe Sbarra -- noted throughout Italy for opening the first "sexy shop" and lauded in some circles for breaking down the barriers in a country that for decades was repressed by the influence of the Catholic Church (you may have heard about that guy up in the Vatican) and a country poised for its own sexual revolution (that would be Italy not the Vatican).

According to an article in the March edition of the best-selling monthly Italian entrepreneur magazine Millionaire (www.millionaire.it), Sbarra felt the cruise is the natural evolution of "...men and women just wanting to have a good time..." and to be honest, he says he didn't think up the concept all by himself. He merely copied an existing concept called the "Gay Cruise" and changed the players from homo to hetero-sexual.

Sbarra put some "feelers out" in the tourism industry and before you can "...Thar she blows...!" The Moncalieri tour agency "Golden Star Tour" (www.goldenstartour.it) came calling.

Sbarra admits this cruise "...isn't for everybody." But also backs up the cruise's apparent popularity by pointing out that "...You'd be surprised at the mix of passengers who signed up. Young professionals, doctors, older couples..." Golden Star Tour did most of the legwork -- procuring a medium-sized cruise ship that offered such amenities as an indoor pool, restaurant, bar, disco and sauna among other things.