Part 3: Livorno and Pisa

Ciao miei amici e famiglia! Today I write to you from our balcony, as we are docked now in Livorno. Livorno, we have learned, is a not-so-tourist friendly small port town that is mainly industrial. The marina is huge, and there are at least 3 other cruise ships docked here in addition to ours, plus other industrial looking ships and barges. The town looks pretty cool though because there are old fortress towers and huge walls (see pics) but then there are also modern looking buildings mixed in with the traditional Tuscan looking homes and other old structures.
Today, knowing we would be docked here for 2 days, slept in again until 11am, and made sure we were ready to leave for our tour of Pisa by 1pm. We traveled through a little of the countryside by coach (bus, not horse and carriage, for those of you confused) on the original Roman roads lined by umbrella pines. So beautiful! And we are told it’s still the original road built by the Romans! Very impressive. So about 30 or 45 minutes gets us to the outskirts of Pisa, and we walked about 15 minutes into the center, where we saw THE Leaning Tower itself, along with the beautiful Baptistry and Cathedral in the Piazza of Miracles. Our tour guide, Tony, or “To New York” as he said (get it, TO-NY), was hilarious and wonderful. A native of Pisa, he apparently wrote a book on all things Pisa, and brought it along to share the history and random facts about all the sights. It was the perfect length tour, and then we got to go inside the cathedral which was just breath-taking (see pics, get an oxygen tank). After about an hour on our own, we wandered back to the bus and traveled back to the boat. I did learn that there is a huge army base (Camp Darby) along the Roman Road (which I think is called Aurelia – our bus guide was Australian so I’m not sure), and apparently they have an Italian-American fair on some weekends and all the Italians flock here to get good American food. Isn’t that something! They had American ambulances and fire trucks, and hundreds of those big green army trucks with the canvas backs, and lots of tents. Anyway, random facts for you.
So now back on the ship, we have gone to the gym again, taken little naps, and discovered how the internet works! Tonight we have casual dinner, maybe a show, probably the bar and casino routine again, and definitely more fun times ahead! It is beautiful here and everywhere we go is just more and more gorgeous. Leave some comments if you’d like or send us an email! Sdimanto@gmail is mine – we got some internet minutes and the wifi spot is 30 feet from our room. So convenient. Check back soon for our adventure in Florence tomorrow! We’re off at 7am…
Missing everyone back home, but loving our time here :)