European On Me!: Day Four: Livorno, Italy

On this Saturday, I woke up early after dreaming that we'd gone home and missed our tour, and the rest of our trip. I didn't want to miss it for real, so I stayed awake as we pulled into port in Livorno, "the gateway to Florence," in Tuscany.

We ate breakfast in bed (finally got that system squared away) and watched the ship come into the harbor. Then I wrote postcards from the previous day, before heading down to the Front Desk for another batch of stamps. My grandfather is a philatelist, so I always bought extra stamps to send to him. It pleased me to think how excited he would be when he received the whole batch upon our return home! I should call him and see how he liked it...

One of the ferries to bring passengers from Livorno to the isles of Corsica and Sardinia

More ships coming to port, in the distant mist

Another ferry. How fun it would have been to hop aboard for the day! But, of course we could not do that. So instead, we waited in the Vista Lounge for our tour to be called. And soon it was.

Today, our tour guide was Lucretzia, a youngish girl from Livorno itself. We were going to visit the old cities of Lucca and - I'm sure you've heard of it - Pisa! On the way, she pointed out these fields of sunflowers and talked about the process of making oil from the seeds. She also discussed the Chianti grapes for wine-making, and the olives and their oil. Did you know that not only are there wine sommeliers, but there are also sommeliers for olive oil, because of the many different Tuscan varieties produced? At a fine restaurant, you will have an olive oil menu for your food, and there will be help for your selection. I found that very interesting.

The beautiful Tuscan countryside

Yep, McDonald's in Tuscany. It wasn't the first we saw in Europe, and it wasn't the last. We found many other popular American brands there, too.

Once we arrived in Lucca, we again separated from our tour so we could wander the streets on our own. Bye, group!

The City of Lucca. Do you see the green area? That represents the old city, which is walled in. Actually, there are lots of cities in Europe where the old part is walled in, and the newer growth spreads out beyond the ancient walls. For our tour, we stayed in the old walled-in area.

And old quiet street in the early morning, in Lucca

Rob posed in the shade, because even though it was before must Luccans were up and about, the sun was already beating down heavily upon us. I believe the temperature rose to 38*C that day, about 100*F.

A toy store in the old city. You can see High School Musical items, Winnie the Pooh, Teletubbies, Legos and more - along with some Italian toys.

Someone's door knocker; Rob was interested in this.

The apartment buildings were so close, you could reach across to each other without strain.

As soon as the first "bars" began to open, we decided to get ourselves a drink to cool off. This is where we stopped.

They had quite a postcard collection going, from all over the world.

See my Sprite can? All in Italian!

When you order a Sprite in Europe, you never know what you're going to get. Here, I got the real thing, but the can was taller and thinner than the ones to which we're accustomed.

Rob pretending not to be aware that I'm once again taking his picture in a café. You'll see a lot more of those!

We kept moving after our drinks, doing a little shopping, a little window browsing, a little people-watching. That was my favorite thing to do, really. This "Stop Baby" baby gate tickled my funny bone!

In the window of a bakery

Such a cute little barber shop seat for toddlers!

Another old church in another old city!

The streets starting to come alive with vehicle, bicycle and foot traffic.

Another American brand!

Oh! We spied another gorgeous carousel in the old, walled-in city of Lucca.

Standing sentry over the city

Our first gelato in Italy! I ordered the chocolate chip; Rob had chocolate. It came with cute little shovels instead of spoons. Sooo good. They spoke no English at that shop, so I did my best to speak Italian. Mostly, that meant speaking with our hands.

Heading back out toward the entrance of the city walls, to meet back up with our tour group.

Look at the wee child's bike!

Once at the entrance, I sent Rob up that hill to see what was so interesting that the tour started off there. This is what he saw, one way...

...and the other. Yep. I'm glad we did what we did!

It was pretty up there on that wall, though.

Coming back down the hill - all the buses leading into Lucca

Back at the gelato shop, we'd also purchased these lollipops for our children. They were quick to devour them when we brought them home!

Here were are at the entrance to the old, walled-in city of Pisa. On the way to Pisa, Lucretzia told us that Livorno and Pisa are enemies. She shared all kinds of jokes Livornans tell about Pisans, depicting them as smelly, stupid and ugly!

We all have our MLKs, they have their LDVs.

This was the local tour guide for Pisa. There had been a local guide for Lucca, too. While the rest of the group followed this guide, guess what we did? That's right, we took our own path.

Of course, the first thing we did was find another bar and have another drink! Rob had coke, and I decided on some pear juice.

By that time we worked up quite an appetite, so we each had a slice of pizza, too. No cannoli, though.

Then we started to tour around all the old buildings in Pisa. Can you see what is in the distance there?

It's the Leaning Tower of Pisa!!! Woohoo!! We made it! That had to be the most anticipated part of the trip for me. Very exciting. It was a lot shorter than I expected!

Rob took his turn posing in front of Pisa's famous tower, too.

The other buildings in the Miracle Square - Piazza de Milagros, I think - were no less striking and splendid.

Not quite as crooked, though!

Across from all the buildings, behind the crowds, was a long row of vendors selling their wares. Mostly cheap souvenirs. Right there in the square! Of course, we bought a few things - t-shirts for Stim, a really cool ceramic dish for me, my requisite souvenirs I listed yesterday, a backscratcher to replace the one from Guam that our dog ate when she was a puppy... think that's it.

A wittle Italian puppers inside one shop!

...and his sister standing guard outside. Oh, they looked desperate for some water, poor things.

The wall around the old city of Pisa

Walking out through the gate in the wall around the city. On the left, in all those shops, were Italians. Outside in the heat, hawking fake belts, watches, hats, bags, and what-have-yous, were Africans. Significance? You decide.

Oh, speaking of fast artisans, like the crocheting man yesterday, this woman embroidered faster than a speeding bullet. Rob, who embroiders at work, was very impressed. After we admired her, she told me she was going to give me a gift. She pulled out some blue cardstock, and before I could blink, she'd embroidered my name on it. I tried to pay her a half-Euro or so, but she wouldn't take it! She just smiled and insisted it was a gift.

More and more souvenir shops outside the walls

The Meeting Point Bar, where we were to ... meet!

More of the Tuscan countryside, passing by on our way back to the ship. *sigh* I want to go back.

Back on board, we went up to the Lido Deck and had a late snack of sandwiches and salads. Then we went back to our stateroom and threw on our bathing suits to finally go swimming. It wasn't the Mediterranean Sea, but I didn't care at that point. It was exceedingly hot. Rob wanted to go in the hot tub, so I obliged for a while, but my rightful place was cooling off in the pool. Some young guys had been drinking beers in the pool, so eventually Rob decided to get a beer for him and a piña colada for moi. When my drink spilled as he was handing it to me, everyone in the pool shouted out in dismay, and we got in trouble with the bar staff. Oops-a-daisy!

The next picture is a little, um... risqué, so you may want to avert your eyes or finish here!
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You know the Statue of David? Well, in Pisa, we found these boxer shorts based on the famous sculpture. I could not resist buying them for Rob. A little bit of wishful thinking, maybe? *ahem* Look how impressed he looks with himself!

After the pool, we read books in our room and took a leisurely nap before dinner at the exclusive Pinnacle Grill aboard ship. That was part of the "romantic voyage" package I'd purchased for us; you have to pay extra to eat there. It was worth it! It was very nice, very fancy. The staff was all dressed in white tie, but we went "smart casual" as indicated we should do. We felt very underdressed, but no one made any case about it. Rob had the best clam chowder he's ever eaten - I later tried to see if they would give me some to surprise him with, but there was no way they could oblige. Oh, well. He also had mushroom ravioli with asparagus. I had crab cakes and the best shrimp scampi ever, with a side of yucky potatoes. Can't win 'em all. There was an amuse course of salmon tartar, some mushroom goop, and teeny bitty shrimps on a cracker. I gave Rob my goop. He likes his fungi, you know. For dessert, he had the berry shortcake, and I had the baked Alaska. I shouldn't have. It was my first time, and it will probably be my last. Is it always cherry? I am not a big fan of cherries.

Afterward, we went to a side lounge and listened to the string quartet play until it was time for the evening show. Then we went down to the Vista Lounge to listen to a Romanian pianist perform. He was very good, very entertaining!

Late at night, we went to one of the bars and watched Karaoke night. We drank cocktails, along with everyone else, and laughed our way through the performances. Rob kept trying to convince me to go up, but I would have had to imbibe a whole lot more before that was happening. And even then, no. Maybe if I could stay in my seat and not stand up in front of everyone...

Back in our room, we snacked on these Chipsters from the French grocery store, Casino, in Eze. They were also available in Italy, spelled "cipster" but pronounced the same way. They were puffy chips and tasted yummy. We sat on our balcony and laughed ourselves silly making fun of the old people down the hall with thick New York accents (take no offense, if you're a New Yawka - I am, too!). We kept up that game throughout the entire cruise and are still doing it. Rob's name is Murray or Lenny, depending on our mood, and mine is Gladys. I guess you had to be there!

Tomorrow: Stay tuned for Rome!

Fin.