Day 12: Livorno/ Pisa

When I left you last night, we had no idea of how we’d spend our day in Livorno, Italy, and even less of one about what weather we might encounter. I am happy to report that everything worked out so well that it affirms my faith in ‘seat of the pants’ travel. 

The weather was rough until the early hours of the morning; in fact, my Fitbit could tell me exactly what time things calmed down. It said I got just 2 hours 54 minutes of sleep starting around 3:30am, but, in actuality, that was just the time we stabilized a bit. You can imagine what a shock it was to see sunshine(!) streaming in our cabin first thing this morning. Our experience yesterday did not prepare us for that! In fact, though it was partly cloudy and we even had a few drops of rain, the weather today had us feeling worse about the Cinque Terre tours being cancelled. This turned out to be a prettier day than the one we’d experienced on our visit two years ago. But that area of northwest Italy has been hard impacted by this storm, and it’s understandable that some roads are simply not passable. 

I was most interested today in seeing the sights of Livorno, but G really wanted to climb the bell tower in Pisa, and, to that end, we read Rick Steves’ book about how to get from the port to the Field of Miracles in Pisa, the location of the leaning bell tower, the cathedral (aka the Duomo) and the Baptistery through a combination of shuttle bus, walking, city bus, train, and more walking. We walked off the ship around 10:10am or so, and went to a counter in the port terminal to buy shuttle bus tickets (€5 round trip) into the center of Livorno. When we mentioned taking the train to Pisa, we were assured it was not possible (right...) and referred to a desk across the terminal for a bus to Pisa. 

Over we went to that desk, where we learned that, yes, we could take a bus to Pisa but we had to first buy the shuttle ticket for €5 and then add another €15 for a bus from the center of Livorno to Pisa. The problem was that the next bus wouldn’t leave Livorno until noon. The shuttle bus-city bus-train combo that Rick Steves laid out was looking better and better...

...until G noticed a small group of passengers recruiting two more to share a taxi to Pisa. The driver, Lorenzo, would take us directly to the Field of Miracles, wait for us, and return us to the ship for €20 per person.  His Mercedes van comfortably held 8 of us, and within minutes we were on our way. It’s a short drive, probably not more than 30 minutes from the port to the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the day was looking sunny, and, for once, I was able to leave behind my wool headband and gloves.

Once in Pisa, we arranged to be back at the van in 2 hours. The first thing we did was buy a ticket to climb the bell tower. The bell tower dates back to the 12th century, and, built in marshy, multi-layered soil, it started to lean almost immediately. Corrections attempted while it was still being built, and also during the 19th century actually worsened the situation.  In 1990 it was closed for repairs for over 10 years. The tower was shored up, cleaned up and straightened up...a little. After all, the fact that it leans is Pisa’s claim to fame; just another straight Italian bell tower would cease to attract the millions of visitors a leaning bell tower does. 

The Cathedral (Duomo) of Pisa

The Duomo


It still leans!

People taking the requisite ‘holding up the Leaning Tower of Pisa’ photos

The Field of Miracles in Pisa

The Baptistry is the round building on the left 

But the now open bell tower was not the only change since we were last here. The whole Field of Miracles looked so much better than it used to.  The beautiful green grass areas were striking against the stone of the Baptistery, Cathedral and bell tower.  Twenty years ago, those areas were filled with vendors’ canopies, each one hawking some kitschy souvenirs. Now those vendors have all been relocated down a side street.  And we didn’t have anywhere near the crowds today that we had on our previous visit. We had been packed into the different buildings then, and several in our group had been pickpocketed in the Cathedral (which must result in a sure ticket to hell for the perpetrators). The fact that the Sapphire Princess was the only ship in Livorno today certainly helped. Tomorrow there will be three ships in port. 

Our ticket to climb the bell tower was for 11:30am, and it didn’t take long at all to climb the roughly 280 steps to the top. The stone steps were uneven and very worn, and a little tricky to walk back down, but we had no trouble. In fact, the climb reminded me a great deal of climbing to the top of the dome in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, though much less strenuous, of course. And the views from the top made it all worthwhile. 

The €18 ticket to climb the bell tower also included admission to the Cathedral (which is actually free, but a ticket is still required), so that was our next stop and, honestly, I don’t remember a lot about that from our last visit, so it was like seeing it for the first time. The 320 foot long nave was the longest one in a Christian Church when it was built. The immediately eye catching 15 foot pulpit was intricately carved from stone by Giovanni Pisano. We lit candles and took photos and, by the time we were done, it was nearly 1pm and time to meet up with our group.

Duomo ceiling 

Giovanni Pisano pulpit

Baptistery of Pisa

We were back on board the Sapphire Princess shortly after 1:30pm.  Though there was free WiFi in the port terminal, our free data and texting has greatly reduced our reliance on mediocre WiFi (but high speed WiFi is always a welcome thing). We have been able to text and Snapchat photos to friends and family in each of our ports for free. 

We returned to Alfredo’s for another pizza lunch and then started to do some packing in our cabin. G had the very smart idea to place the items we won’t need until we are on the Pacific Princess in one of our suitcases, as NCL doesn’t have formal nights. I suspect we will also be more casual due to no Captains Circle obligations, an extremely port intensive itinerary, and, as G likes to say, “We don’t know any of those people anyway!”  We will definitely be “freestyle cruising”. 

Our departure time of 7pm was delayed for a late-returning ship’s excursion, but we have plenty of time to make the short trip overnight to Civitavecchia, the port city for Rome. We said our goodbyes to our waitstaff Alma and Boonta, and headwaiter Adrian. They will all be here when we return to the ship in Singapore (but won’t be our waiters), but Maitre d’ Generoso and Assistant Maitre d’ Godwin will be returning home. 

The entertainment tonight was a variety show (which is akin to a seafood medley entree at the end of a cruise), but we were so fortunate to be treated to new performances by violinist Michael Bacala and vocalist Phillip Browne. It was the best ‘last night of the cruise variety show’ I’ve ever seen. 

We are completing our final packing, and will be early to bed tonight. Wake ups on disembarkation days also come early.  We will be among the last guests off the ship around 10am, and, in a perfect world, our hotel shuttle will be waiting for us after we claim our luggage. Our hope is to do some sightseeing tomorrow afternoon...provided we can secure our valuables in a safe at the hotel. 

And the second part of the first segment of our around the world adventure begins the next day. 

Life is good. :-)

Day 9: Livorno, Italy and the Cinque Terre

Our four alarms successfully rousted us this morning at 6am. They probably rousted all our neighbors, too, but no matter today. This was one of the highlights of the cruise, and when we arrived in the Panorama Buffet before 6:30am, it was already hopping. We shared a table with two other couples and quickly ate omelets and fruit to get our day started. We needed to meet our tour group in the Cabaret Lounge at 7:15am, and it, too was packed. 

We later learned that over half of the ship took a ship's tour to the town of Florence, and I don't blame them. It is absolutely the most 'must see' site in the area. Located a 90 minutes drive from the port of Livorno, those tour groups were leaving early today too. But we have been in Livorno before, and had already done Florence and the Uffizi Gallery and the Accademia. We've also been to Pisa, located only about a 30-minute drive from Livorno. So today we were determined to see the Cinque Terre, a series of five fishing villages located along a 15-mile stretch of western Italy between Livorno and Portofino. I had tried to figure out a way to do these on our own but finally realized that, to do these in one day from the ship, they were best done through a ship's excursion.  You'll soon realize why..:

We boarded our nice tour bus (no WiFi though:-() and met our guide for the day, Andrea. Andrea was a wonderful guide, full of enthusiasm about this part of Italy and a life long resident. But he was harious in telling us to keep our expectations in check...about the bus, about the train, about the boats we were using. "They are Italians buses (boats, trains); do not over-expect". Good advice about most things in life. We drove through Livorno and about an hour north through the Tuscany countryside to the town of La Spezia on the Gulf of the Poets, and home to the Italian Naval academy. There we saw the huge Royal Caribbean Harmony of the Seas docked, but Andrea assured us we would be visiting the Cinque Terre ahead of its masses. 

 

Hillside towns before we arrived at the Cinque Terre

 

La Spezia with the Harmony of the Seaa in the background 

 

Our first view of the hillside terraces where grapes are grown and for which the Cinque Terre is famous

  

We viewed the first of the five villages, Riomaggiore, from the bus. It was clinging to the side of the steep hills just above the ocean. In the next village, Manarola, we were dropped off by the bus above the town, and walked down the steep walkways and steps into the village. There were no cars allowed except for residents, in any of the towns until the final one, and the roads weren't roads at all, but narrow alleys and sidewalks lined with buildings, apartments and B&Bs. 

 

Monorail system used to maintain and harvest the grapes on the steeply terraced hillsides

 

 

Steps like these built into the rock walls are found everywhere 

 

Manarola bell tower

 

 

 

 

Steps like these lead to B&Bs and homes

Once we reached the waterfront, we boarded a ferry boat and traveled down the coast past Corniglia to the village of Vernazza. Here we disembarked the ferry and had about an hour to walk around the town on our own. Our weather to this point had been perfect, sunny if chilly, and the brightly colored buildings popped. As we boarded our next ferry for the 5-minute ride to the final village Monterosso, a cloud moved in and, though we didn't get rain, we didn't see the sun again. 

 

Vernazza

 

Rock slide prevention

 

Hillside villages, not part of the Cinque Terre, could be seen in the distance 

 

A rare view of the track and tunnel system for the trains that connect the five villages 

 

Vernazza

 

Boats in the harbor in Vernazza

 

These boots probably hiked the Cinque Terre trail system

 

 

 

 

There is a 15 mile stone walkway that connects the villages that can be walked in about 5 hours. There are also trains that travel in tunnels through the mountains, and, of course, the ferries, but there is no way to travel between the villages by car. 

The last village of Monterosso was the largest one. We had two hours to spend here, and, after attending an included wine tasting, had a lunch of different focaccias and the local wine. We had seen the steeply terraced hillsides planted with grape vines. These are still worked in the traditional manner, though simple monorails are used to help transport people and tools and harvested grapes up and down the hillsides.  After lunch, G and I walked east along the walkway toward Vernazza a bit, just to experience the walk (it is very steep with stone stairs in various degrees of disrepair. It would be fun to return someday and do the entire walk, spending a day in each of the villages. 

 

Monterosso 

 

Lunch! I had the second one. 

 

Paintable views everywhere

 

Oratorio della Confraternita dei Neri Mortis et Orationis

 

 

Footpath from Monterosso to Vernazza

 

Never ending steps

 

Sometimes the trail hangs out over the hillside 

We met our group at 3pm and walked to the train station in Monterosso. From here we took a 5 minute train ride to the town of Levante where we were being met by our bus. It was about 3:45pm when we were finally onboard and settled in for the roughly 90 minute ride back to the ship. It was a pretty quiet bus on the return, except for Andrea pointing out the marble quarries on the mountainsides in Carrera and the bell tower in Pisa as we rode by. 

 

Marble quarries in Carerra

Once back in the ship, we showered quickly and went to the Club Restaurant for dinner (it was open seating tonight). Joy of joys, it was the Italian menu tonight, and we smelled the garlic before we even got down to Deck 5. We purchased a bottle of Italian wine and had a wonderful meal. Head waiter Jozcko was making an appetizer of shrimp in white wine, and then I had a spinach and pecorino salad followed by a scallops and shrimp entree. One scoop of limoncello sorbet was a perfect end to the meal. 

Though we were fading, we went to the 8pm production show called What the World Needs Now (I was wrong before when I said it was Colors of the World). This was mostly a singing show of Burt Bacharach type love songs. It lasted just 30 minutes, which was fine tonight as we were half asleep. G was out before his head touched a pillow but I needed to write this blog post and import photos from the camera to my iPad. I've kept this pretty short tonight, but if I don't wrap it up now I'll be falling asleep and getting hit in the nose when my iPad falls. I'll publish this post tomorrow morning and will add photos when I can. My favorites are now up to 112. Does anyone think these are going to get published anytime soon? (ETA:  who knew that we'd have an unscheduled trip home and lots of 2am wake ups as we were still on European time?)