Saturday 26 May 2012 Livorno

Livorno isn’t much of an attraction of its own, but it is the jumping off point for Florence/Firenze, Pisa, and the rest of Tuscany. We did a six-hour tour to Firenze, returning just before 3 PM. It was a 1.5 hour bus ride each way. It wasn’t terribly scenic due to development along the way. We had 1.5 hours to explore Firenze on our own, and the other 1.5 hours was spent visiting a leather factory (and store) and just getting around. Because it was Saturday, the factory was not in operation, but we got a tour with some explanations anyway. We took in the big three sights in Firenze: the Ponte Vecchio Bridge, the Duomo, and Michaelangelo’s statue of David. (The original is in a museum with long lineups, so we satisfied ourselves with the copy in the square.)

Our timing in the city was impeccable. Eat your heart out Carla!

Back at the ship, we grabbed a late light lunch then took in the Tom Hanks suspense thriller movie “Angels and Demons” in the theatre. There are thirty-six leather recliners and FREE! Popcorn, but only nine people showed up, including us.

After the movie we changed clothes and went to dinner. As we were finishing up, the ship was leaving port, so we hung out on deck for a while, watching the world go by. We returned to our cabin for some blog writing, and then headed out for a quick sample of the pool party before returning to post some accumulated blog.

Weather: temperature 20 degrees this morning on the display in the bus, rising to 26 degrees on the way home; sky was overcast this morning, clearing in the afternoon, then becoming a high thin overcast; wind light.