We left Rome at 8 PM Thursday and began sailing across the Tyrrhenian Sea for Livorno, Italy. By the time we woke up, the ship was already tied to the pier and people were disembarking the ship for tours to Pisa, Florence, and other spots in the Tuscan region. It seems Livorno is a gateway to Tuscany. Peg and I were too tired to take on anything real adventurous or involving additional travel today so after breakfast and getting dressed we just wandered into town and eventually came upon a tour boat operator selling rides through the canals of Livorno and telling all about the history. The boat was very much like a motorized Gondola and turned out to be fun.
This was a pretty low key activity so we paid the 10 Euros each and went along for the ride. I thought of it as a vacation from our vacation. The waterway took us all through the town and the guide told us all about the various buildings and the history behind them (including stories about which structures were damaged in the war and how some structures were never repaired...see the cracks in the walls of the fortress built to protect the town from the sea). It was a very relaxing day and we spent the entire afternoon back on the ship.
We later learned that while the taxi/tour operators wanted 100 Euros and more to drive the 15 miles to Pisa, one could hop on a local bus to the train station (bus #1 at the town square in Livorno) and the train woulld take you to Pisa, Florence, and back all for about 9 Euro.
Our french friend we met on board named Suresh did this with his wife Veronia and said it was very easy...and they had lots of fun. They got off the train in Pisa and went by the tower for a while, only then to re-board a later train that took them on an additional one hour ride through Tuscany to Florence. Suresh said the cathedral in Florence was absolutely amazing. I had no idea the train to Pisa was as easy to take as the one going to Rome (just a different direction). We did hear later in the evening tht some of the people who did the shore excursion through the cruise line did pay a lot for it and also had no idea it could have been done so much cheaper by train. In reading about Pisa, I found out that there has been some excavation work done at the base of it so the tower is actually leaning a little less these days (about 5" less). Engineers have excavated the base of the tower in such a way that they hope the base will continue to move and the tower itself will right itself by about another 15 inches! It did occurr to me that if the tower stops leaning all together, Pisa may not get all the tourists there to come and see it!
While we did miss Florence and Pisa, we enjoyed just hanging out on the ship for a day of relaxation. The people who did make it all the way to Florence (about 1.5 hours from the port) all seemed to just love it. Florence and Pisa are for sure on our list of future things to do, but it sounds like taking the train is the ticket!
We left Livorno by slowly pulling away from the dock and turning the ship towards Spain. Looking at the port made us realize that visitng the country of Italy was a sureal experience. Having only been there for the first time in our lives, who could say whether we would ever be back again? Of course we would love to return, but life truely is like a box of chocolates.
If we ever do return, I want to go back to the Straights of Messina and this time stop there to see the town. I talked to a crew member who has been sailing the Meditteranean Sea for 7 years now, he told me the stop in Messina on the island of Siciliy is his favorite place amongst them all.
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