Okay - Cruise day 3. Like I said - we woke up in Livorno. It was hard to wake up - we were both quite tired. We ate a quick breakfast on the 9th deck and ran to meet up with our excursion group at 8:15. The process to go on excursion is pretty complex - they offer all sorts of excursions and organize the leaving times. So everyone goes to the theater on deck 4 to find out what bus # they were on (they give you a sticker) and then you wait for that bus to be called to walk en masse to the gangway.
In the shore excursions we had a bus escort (who would talk to us during the bus journey) and then a local guide once we arrived at our destination. This time our bus escort was Valentina (Valé). The driver was Fabricio. Valé was from Livorno and quite funny about the Pisans - apparently there is a big rivalry that goes way back between Pisa and Livorno. Pisa used to be the main port for Tuscany (in Roman times) but the Arno river delta filled up with silt, so it wasn't practical anymore - and the leaders just up and moved the port to Livorno. Then to encourage people to move to the new city they forgave crimes for people that would move. So the Pisans don't like Livorno. But she told us all the things that Livorno says about Pisa - first they laugh and say that Pisa is famous just for a mistake (the leaning tower). Then they laugh at them for being bad at soccer (just recently Livorno moved into a better league than Pisa). So on the signs between Livorno and Pisa there is a lot of graffiti - for instance in Livorno on the signs that point the way to Pisa it says PISA sucks. The "sucks" is in spray paint - on almost every sign. Too funny.
So after getting a lot of local flavor(guidance on how much to spend on gelato) - we arrived in Pisa. We met our local guide Antonia (Toni) there. We all walked together about a mile to the the city walls (from the Roman times) and just inside of the NW wall is the Square of Miracles. This is the site of the Duomo of Pisa. In Italy every city has a cathedral (usually the biggest) that is the Duomo - the main church. In the Square of Miracles is first the Baptistery - which is HUGE. Then the cathedral, and just next to that is the Campanile (the Italian word for bell tower) - which leans. Then there is also a big cemetery on one side, and on the other a building that used to be the main hospital. The buildings all seem huge and crammed in close to each other. We didn't have a lot of time after the tour/lecture - so we didn't climb the tower or go into any of the other buildings. Instead we decided to walk down a local street. We got our first gelato - we shared a cone with Lemon and Crema (a custard flavor). It was good good good. Surprisingly we both like the Crema even better than the lemon.
We walked back to the meeting point where we waited amongst all sorts of shops and vendors - some legit and some not. Pisa is rife with Nigerian and Senegalese immigrants selling dodgy jewelry, sunglasses and handbags. We bought none. In a shop Rachel almost bought a great orange leather purse - but decided to wait to see what Florence had to offer (that is where we were told the best leather was). I bought some Turrone (a nougat candy with nuts that I loved in Spain) with hazelnuts - it wasn't quite as good as the Almond kind from Barcelona.
We were lucky with the weather - it was threatening to rain all day. We were prepared with umbrellas but lucked out. The clouds were amazing and I ended up with some cool pictures.
We got back to the ship and ate lunch a little late. Rachel's foot hurt a lot so we decided on a rest for icing feet and napping. After the break we'd take the shuttle ($6 each way for each of us) into Livorno to explore the town. Rach woke up kind of grumpy - and we had to have a chat before we could leave the room. I think it actually made the cruise better to have a kind of heated "discussion" early on. The rest of the time we had the right words for communicating with out driving each other nutso.
Rachel really liked Livorno. We just went to the main shopping district - but she liked that it wasn't touristy. I wondered what she'd think of Florence. While in Livorno, we went to a supermarket (which are always in the basement of department stores). We found some chocolate for Sunset Hills Ward Mother's Day - the first of a European Chocolate Tour for the ladies in the ward. Dad is in the bishopric in that ward and they thought that it would be a fun thing to do...we were a little stressed about staying in budget - but it was a fun challenge too.
Back on the ship we went to dinner and saw Jim, Nancy, Linda and Bill - we saw them every night. It added a great consistency to the cruise - kind of like coming home each night and talking about our day. We loved it. Dessert was fantastic (I need to dedicate an entry just to cruise food - it was an experience) - dessert was a diamond of warm baklava and pistachio ice cream. So yummy - all of it. Jim got 2 servings. Rachel and I shared one, but got 2 scoops of ice cream. Then later on I got a 2nd piece of baklava (no warm though) from the buffet.
After dinner we went to play Elevensees in the library. After 1 hand, Ethel and Sandi came in and we switched to play Hearts all together. It was fun.
Next up Florence. :)
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