Livorno

We are in Livorno for 2 days. Many people are of course taking shore excursions into Florence. As I've been to Florence, Pisa and Lucca the nearby cities, my choice is to stay and see Livorno . It's much more of a working city and less of a tourist destination like Florence. The food market is wonderful to walk through, all that beautiful Italian meat and cheese. And it's fun to watch the locals shopping. They are so animated you can almost follow the conversation even though the language is different. Livorno was pretty much flattened by the bombing in WW2, but vestiges of the old town still remain. There are a couple of forts, the Old and the New (the new is from the 16th century). There is also the Venezia district along the canals, with small boats of various sorts tied up to the sides. The main shopping street, Via Grande has the grand covered arcades common in northern Italian cities. Even if you're not going to buy the window shopping is fantastic!

We saw the start of a classic car rally, with cars from the 60s, mainly Italian cars with a few German and British.

We head back to the ship for a light lunch. It's very pleasant up on deck so we sit outside and have soup and cauliflower wings, washed down by a beer.

Karen and I headed out again after lunch, walking over to the Old Fortress. Entry is free and it's very interesting, as they have lots of signage in both Italian and English with pictures showing how it was originally. There was a lot of damage from WW2, but they have restored quite a bit of it. Then back to the ship for a hot tub as it sounds like the weather will be changing tomorrow.

For dinner tonight we went up to the Windows Buffet. Lots of great options including Porchetta, pork scallopini, Zucchini involtini, eggplant parmigiana.... and for dessert tiramisu, pear frangipani tarts, eclairs, gelato...

And tonight was the Azamazing Evening Onboard. Three Tenors entertained us with opera selections. Although I'm not an opera aficionado I really enjoyed it!



















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