Friday, April 24, 2009

April 24, 2009, Friday
Today's port was Livorno, Italy. It's a large industrial port on the northern west coast of Italy. Florence (Firenze) is about 1 hour ½ to the east by train. When we got off the ship, it was cold and windy, but sunny. We wore jeans and our jackets. You have to take a shuttle into the center of town and then walk a block to catch the #1 bus to the train station. It all takes about 20 – 25 minutes. Once at the train station we purchased round trip tickets from Livorno to Florence. The tickets have to be validated before boarding the train, which means you have to stick your ticket in a little yellow box on the train platform before you get on the train and it dates and time stamps it. Then you have 6 hours to use the ticket. We made the 9:11 a.m. train and got to Florence by 10:30 a.m. We took two seats on the train next to a couple from Arizona. We talked with them all the way to Florence and then decided to stick together and sightsee as a group. So we made new friends with Ivan and Denise and couldn't have picked better people to sit next to. They were just as up for all the walking as we were. So many people want to take the easy way with tours and taxis while we enjoy exploring on our own and walking.
When we arrived at the train station, we bought some small city maps of Florence and headed out with a plan to walk thru the city and pass picture worthy sites while on the way to the Galleria Accademia which houses Michelangelo's David. I didn't know that you can't take pictures, so I snapped off one shot of a statue and then bought a postcard of the David. After the museum we headed thru the city toward the Ponte Vecchio bridge. I stopped at a vendor's booth and admired his leather bags. I ended up getting a small leather purse for 28 Euros. We made it back to the train station early enough we all decided to make the stop in Pisa. I had heard that the Tower of Pisa was within walking distance of the train. It was about a 20 minute walk and that was at a good pace, not strolling. Ivan speaks fluent Spanish and many locals do also, so we were able to quickly have directions to wind our way down the streets to the Tower. It was quite a site and very beautiful. It is being restored so the stone is looking much brighter. There we did stroll around the building, used the WC and then had a Gelato. I got a dark cherry 2 dip gelato. I could do this every day…. We made the walk back to the train station and caught the 5:34 p.m. train back to Livorno. It's only a 15 minute ride. Then we had to grab the bus and then the shuttle. I nearly fell asleep on the shuttle….hmmm…go wonder…..
When we got back to the ship we cleaned up and went straight to dinner. I had the pork loin with red cabbage and the black bean soup and cheese platter. Chip had the monkfish and potatoes, a sausage and peppers and hummus platter and black bean soup. After dinner the entertainment was Lenny Windsor, a comedian from England.