September 18th – Livorno, Italy

Another early port day, another 6:15am wake up time, and another excellent burrito for breakfast! And again, we met our roll call friends in the lobby to get off the ship by 8am. Today would be the last of the 3 tours I organized with Rome in Limo, and we met our guide Rafaeli (Rafa for short) outside the port area with our oversized 8-person van. I think it was probably the same size as the 12-person vans we used in Athens and Izmir, but there were only 8 seats inside. It had a huge trunk space, so we suggested to Rafa that he should install a bathroom in the back haha

Once in the van, we drove for about 20 minutes to our first stop: Pisa! We arrived by 8:30am, and Rafa said we could have 45 minutes to walk around and take our photos. Since it was still very early, it wasn’t crowded yet, but there were a few other tourists walking around. I really wanted to take the typical photo of holding up the Leaning Tower, but I was surprised to find out that it is really hard to get the right angle for the photo! We kept walking around to different sides of the tower, and after about 30 minutes, I finally figured out a good place to stand to get the right angle for the photo haha 

Miracle Square

Rafa went to college in Pisa, so he drove us around the town and pointed out some other sites besides Miracle Square, including the other leaning tower in Pisa at a church (although unfortunately, the angle is wrong to see it’s lean in this photo):

After that, Rafa drove us an hour and a half into Florence. Most of the drive was on the highway, but we had a few moments with a view of the Tuscan countryside. Our first stop in Florence was Piazzale Michelangelo, with an amazing view over all of Florence. Rafa pointed out each of the major buildings, so it was great to get an overview of everything we would be seeing for the rest of the day.

Il Duomo

Ponte Vecchio

Once we were finished taking our photos, we drove down into the city of Florence.

Our next stop was the Church of Santa Croce. Rafa dropped us off right next to the plaza, and we had 20 minutes to walk around the square. It was much more crowded here, with many large tour groups to dodge.

We got back in the van and drove through the city, and suddenly Rafa pulled up right in front of the plaza of Il Duomo! It was noon, and he said to meet him back at that spot at 1:45pm. He recommended a great little restaurant for lunch with pizza and paninis…

We spent the rest of our time walking around the plaza and shopping at the leather market. I found a leather purse that I really liked, and I was able to bargain the price down to half of what the vendor was originally asking, so I was happy with that. I also bought a leather bracelet and a few other things.

Does anyone have any idea what this sign means? haha

We pre-purchased tickets to the Academia to see the David at 2pm. Rafa helped us exchange our vouchers for real tickets, escorted us into the museum, and told us to meet him back at the van in 45 minutes. We wandered through the museum and spent a few minutes admiring the David. I thought it was well worth the price of admission to see the David statue in person. It stands 33ft tall and is truly huge and breathtaking. You are not permitted to take any photos in the museum, but some people were able to subtly sneak a photo of the David (wink, wink!) After seeing the David, we went into the room with hundreds of plaster casts. This room was a pleasant surprise, and I found it very interesting to admire so many sculptures.

We left the museum and met up with Rafa, and he drove us to an area of the straw market. He told us to find the boar at the far side of the market and that legend says rubbing its head will make you return to Florence. He also told us where to find the duplicate David status in the Piazza Vecchio so we could take legal photos. This straw market sold the same purses for the same prices as the other leather market that was closer to Il Duomo, so I was glad I did my shopping earlier when we had more time.

I think this was also when we were supposed to see the Ponte Vecchio, but Rafa only gave us 30 minutes, so there wasn’t enough time to go there. We did drive by it several times during the day and I was able to take several photos from the van, but it would have been nice to take 15 minutes to get to walk through it and see some of the shops (although I have heard they are very overpriced, so it isn’t likely I would have bought anything anyway!)

Our last stop of the day was at a local gelato shop on the other side of the river. They had about 30 flavors to choose from, and they were very inexpensive at 1.50 Euros for 2 large scoops in a cup. It was a delicious way to end the day before our hour-long drive back to Livorno. 

We arrived back at the pier around 5pm for the 5:30 all aboard time. We quickly got changed and went straight to dinner.

My all-time favorite appetizer: Escargots!!

Seafood platter

Chateaubriand

Dessert menu

Apple and nuts baked in phyllo pouch

Double Roasted Pineapple

We sailed away 40 minutes late (they had paged 5 names on the overhead to call guest services, so we assumed they must have contacted the ship and the captain waited for them, although we will never know for sure), and when we did, it was very rocky. At 8pm, Noonan came on the overhead speaker to announce that the Latin Nights show had to be cancelled due to the rough seas because it was not safe for the dancers to perform. He rescheduled Latin Nights for tomorrow night, and instead, one of the dancers did a one-man show. He was fantastic!! He is very funny and we noticed he was the lead singer all week. You could tell he was improvising, as it looked like his wardrobe was one of the girl’s skirts from the Motown show, but he had 6 or 7 shows that he sang while dancing all over the theater and interacting with the audience. We all agreed that his performance was likely better than Latin Nights would have been! haha

After the show, we very carefully walked back to the cabin. I think everyone looked a bit drunk while they were walking, but it was probably just because of the ship rocking back and forth… or was it 😉 We decided to spend some time packing so we could enjoy our last night on the ship tomorrow night.

Up next: France!