OUTSIDE LIPARI, Sicily – The Silversea cruise of French and Italian port towns has offered beautiful views, keeping passengers busy with their digital cameras. But it’s likely that the most striking photographs will be those taken by Fabrizio Ferri of Isabella Rossellini.

“The way we work is very special,” Mr. Ferri said.

“This is the best job, and I’m working with the best people,” Ms. Rossellini said of her modeling for a Silversea advertising campaign. (The cruise line invited Out & About to join the cruise for free.)

The model and actress recently appeared in “Heights,” had a role on the television show “Alias,” and will be in two independent films coming out next year. One of her best-known films is David Lynch’s “Blue Velvet.” She also won international recognition as the face of Lancome. She loves the sea and has a boat at her home in Bellport, on Long Island.

Mr. Ferri, a star photographer in the fashion industry, has studios in Milan and New York. Last year his Industria Superstudio in the West Village became a popular destination when he opened up Barbuto on the first floor, partnering with chef Jonathan Waxman.

The photo crew also includes the stylist Monica Coppola. Some celebrities refuse to be photographed without her. For the Rossellini shoots, Ms. Coppola has chosen scarves and long gypsy skirts that billow in the wind of the sea, becoming elements of sculpture in the pictures.

Last Tuesday the Silver Shadow took anchor at Syracuse, on the southeastern tip of Sicily. The photo crew drove 40 minutes inland to Noto, a magical city known for its Baroque architecture and its pastry shop. By early afternoon, the crew was back in Syracuse, where Plato taught philosophy and Archimedes built weapons of war. Ms. Rossellini and Mr. Ferri spent the afternoon wandering the narrow streets of Ortygia, where the sheets hanging to dry on the balconies, the scooters vrooming around children, and the fish jumping in the market belie the town’s historical significance. The cathedral in the main square was originally a temple dedicated to Athena, built by the Greeks in the fifth century B.C. The Doric columns are still standing, incorporated into the newer structure.

In the late afternoon, as the sun cast a warm glow over the yellow, blue, and pink buildings, the crew set up a shot along the water, with a view of the Silver Shadow anchored in the background.

One photograph in particular made Mr. Ferri extremely happy. It featured Ms. Rossellini and her daughter, Elettra Wiedemann.

“The whole day was in their eyes,” he said. “Usually models come to a place with their iPod and a book. They don’t even look around. This was so different, because we’d spent the day exploring the town.”

Mr. Ferri and Ms. Rossellini hardly speak during their work. What to do, how to set up the shot, comes naturally.

Mr. Ferri has more to say to Elettra, who, like her mother, seems poised to have a life of diverse accomplishments. Ms. Wiedemann, who attended the United Nations International School, has designed her own major in humanitarian law and African studies at the New School for Social Research. She hopes to work in Africa to help tribes integrate into the global economy. Modeling is an interest but not her passion.

“She gets bored. So I talk to her a lot more,” Mr. Ferri said of Elettra.

Today the ship took anchor outside Lipari, largest of the Aeolian islands. It was first significant as a source for obsidian, which could be crafted into sharp tools. Today its pumice quarries are active but may soon give way to high-end hotels. For shooting on the island, Mr. Ferri chose a vertical beach of pumice.

The most magnificent photo came later. It was taken on board, as the ship passed the island of Stromboli, whose active volcano erupts every 15 to 20 minutes. But it was not just the volcano that made the picture. It was the personal history of the island. Stromboli is where Ms. Rossellini’s parents, the actress Ingrid Bergman and the director Roberto Rossellini, met while making the film by the same name. Mr. Ferri took the photograph in black and white to recall the film.

Passengers had their cameras and binoculars out to see the island. But it was important to just stop and look at the steam rising from the volcano, the smooth, blackened slopes of lava, and the island’s otherwise green terrain.

When the ship passes at night, one can see the red glow of the lava sliding down the slopes. Passing by day offered a clear view of the town, where Stromboli’s 400 residents live. The eruptions are on a mountain isolated in the center of the island, but from the sea the distance seemed small.