Our Greek Isles/Mediterranean
Crown Princess Cruise May 2009
Livorno, Florence & Pisa Italy
We
arrived in port about 6am this morning, the port of Livorno, Italy. We were
to board the bus at 7:30am and head to Florence and then on to Pisa. This
was our only already scheduled ship excursion for this cruise.
We got settled on the bus and were on our way soon after. Our first stop
was something like a 
truck
stop or rest stop with gas and a restaurant on the way. It was actually
a bathroom break for those who needed it. We were there for 10 minutes and
then back on the road again. This was a 1 1/2 hour trip to Florence.
The countryside was beautiful with rolling hills of grapevines, olive trees, pine trees amid the rest of the greenery.
See the Tuscany countryside here.
Once we were in Florence the bus dropped us off as close as possible. The traffic was bad as we got to town center but it wasn't too bad. We got off the bus and started walking. Each of us had a radio with ear plugs so we could hear what the guide was saying.
We
visited the Piazza Della Signoria where we saw a copy of Michelangelo's
David amongst other statues. We went to the river and saw the Ponte Vecchio,
which means the "old bridge" in Italian.This is the last remaining
medieval bridge spanning the Arno River.This was built in 1220.
Here are our pictures walking to and around Piazza Dell Signoria.
Next
we made our way to the Santa Croce church which is the final resting place
of Michelangelo and Galileo Galilei. This a Gothic church that has the Star
of David on the front of the church at the top. They are doing a lot of
renovations here but only block off what they are working on at the time.
Here are our pictures of Santa Croce.
After we finished at the church we had some time to do some shopping. We were taken to the leather shop where you did get a ship discount and there were also clean restrooms you could use without paying to use them. I bought a purse and a wallet here. If you use cash you can get a 10% discount, if you're using a credit card you will get a 5% discount.
Jerry and I headed out to find an ATM, on the way we stopped off at the souvenir shop to get something for Florence. We got to the ATM only to find it was out of order. I stepped into the bank but it was not like our banks so I headed back out after not getting any help. We hurried back to the meeting place.
We
moved on to the Duomo (Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore), the bell tower
and the Baptistery which is in the heart of Florence at Piazza del Duomo
before stopping for lunch at Buca San Giovanni Ristorante. It was a good
lunch. We had red wine and bottled water waiting for us. Our lunch consisted
of vegetarian lasagne, beef with potatoes and peas and then dessert was
tiramisu.
Here are our pictures walking to and around Duomo.
After lunch we made our way to the bus which was parked at the bus station and we were on our way to Pisa. It was pretty warm by the time we headed over to the bus station for our 10 minute walk.
Once
we got to Pisa we were off the bus and walking to the Piazza del Duoma which
includes the Duomo, baptistery and of course the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
It was about a 10 minute walk along the wall. We went in and took our pictures
of and with the leaning tower. You can climb the 294 steps to the top of
the tower for a magnificent view. Jerry and I chose not to do so plus you
had to see if someone didn't show up for their reservations. We did see
one of our tablemates from dinner last night who did climb to the top which
was included in their package tour for the day.
It was pretty warm and we were glad to head back to the bus to get back to the ship. We kept thinking we were glad we were here now rather than in July or August!
Once back on the ship we settled in for the evening and enjoyed one of our bottles of wine we bought in France. Jerry made an excellent choice. We decided to have dinner at the buffet which turned out to be Mexican Buffet. I did a load of laundry before turning in for the night.
Tomorrow we are off to Naples and we're looking forward to it. We are tired but we are enjoying our time in Italy.
One note here for the port of Livornio, we were told we shouldn't do a tour on our own here because of the traffic. Now looking back we could have gotten a private tour because the only bad traffic was in Florence. I don't see why there would have been a problem getting back to the ship because we spent a lot of time on the ship tour in Florence but I don't think we would have spent that long if we were on a private tour. It was not a problem getting to Pisa and then on to the ship.