Wednesday, September 6, 2000
We had originally talked about visiting Pisa while in port at
Livorno, or even staying aboard ship and enjoying the emptiness while
everyone else was in Florence. In the end, the charm of our favorite
Italian city couldn't keep us away and we decided to navigate to
Florence on our own by taking the train. We set our alarm again with
enough time to have breakfast and disembark as soon as the gangway
opened at 8 am. The first train to Florence was to leave at 8:56 (the
next wouldn't leave until 10:56), so we thought there was plenty of
time even though the train station was a little distance away (it
turns our we were docked about 3 miles into the port through a maze
of piers). We exited the ship and started walking for a taxi. There
were several taxis outside the ship but each were looking for US$280
to go to Florence. None would mess with a little trip to the Livorno
train station. Still thinking we could find one, we walked some more
but realized we did not see any way out of the port on our own (poor
planning and information on the ship's part). There was a shuttle bus
into Livorno leaving at 8:30 destined for the center of town, which
was still 10 min from the train station, so as a last resort we
jumped on that shuttle. It left late because the host girl was
waiting to let more people on (thus more money for her). Even though
every person on that bus wanted to go to the train station, she
refused and dropped us at the town center, promising we could take a
taxi to the station. When the bus reached the center of town there
were only two taxis which were limited to 4 passengers each. Through
some miracle, we managed to shove into one of the taxis (no we didn't
feel good about it) and rushed to the train station. We arrived at
the station at 9 am but the train was running late and was destined
to leave in 5 more minutes. To add to the drama, the receipt tape ran
out and we were further delayed buying tickets. We finally made a run
for the Florence platform (through an underground staircase and
tunnel) and hopped on the train. Our butts had not even hit the seats
when the train pulled out of the station. With that bit of stress
behind us, we were glad to be on our way to Florence.
We arrived in Florence at 10:30 and we immediately purchased
return tickets to Livorno to avoid lines later. We didn't want
anything left to chance after our near miss in the morning. Since we
were already familiar with the city we just started walking toward
the center of town, stopping once for a delicious morning cappuccino.
No one does cappuccino like in Italy. Starbucks has nothing on these
guys. We suspect they add a bit of vanilla to make it more tasty,
because Keith's throat swelled slightly like when he has vanilla ice
cream.
Il Duomo and tower
Il Duomo again
The baptistery
The famous doors of the
baptistery
Once at the Duomo we relaxed under the charm of Florence. We had
agreed to meet Norma from Glasgow (dinner table mate) for lunch at
noon so we had a little time to wander around before then. We quickly
found Jill's ceramic shop where we had bought a spoon rest and
utensil holder on our honeymoon (it's on the counter right now). We
were hoping to find a matching piece. The lady must have become
really popular in 2 years because a small pitcher now costs US$150
which is an over 500% increase in price. We were wishing we had
bought more in the past, we would sell it now for profit! Needless to
say we didn't buy anything to add to our set.
San Lorenzo square - lots of
shopping and right next to the Uffizi
Just a couple doors down was one of our favorite lunch places
called Trattoria Le Mossacce. We kept walking and passed our
honeymoon hotel and the Festival of Gelato, an amazing ice cream shop
with a dizzying choice of flavors.
We found Norma at the Duomo and took her back to Mossacce for
lunch. We almost finished 1.5 liters of Chianti (2 bottles
equivalent) over lunch of ribolitta (awesome soup), veal rollatini,
and tortellini with meat sauce. Very hearty and rib sticking food. It
was great, as good as we remembered. Feeling good following lunch we
walked to the Ponto Vecchio and directed Norma to a couple of points
of interest.
In front of Ponto Vecchio
We walked to Santa Croce to look for some leather goods but left
empty handed. We then found the San Lorenzo market and shopped some
more, ending up with a new wallet for Keith and leather belt for
Jill. Still no briefcase purchase. By this time it was late enough to
start heading to the train for the last one to Livorno. We vowed to
return to Florence again and spend more time to do it justice.
Another marble facade church in
Florence
Tourists and locals alike taking a
break
The train ride to Livorno was uneventful. It was warm (no air but
open windows) but we managed to nap a little and talk to another
couple also from our cruise. The train was packed with fellow
Princess Cruise passengers. The train arrived in Livorno at 5:50 and
we had to be back on the ship at 6:30 for the sail away at 7 pm. We
had been warned that the ship waits for no one unless itÕs a tour
group. We exited the train station and the taxi stand filled up with
about 50 people and no taxiÕs in sight. Some guy from the cruise
spoke Italian and was able to figure out that the bus #7 stopped at
the port. We all packed (like sardines) into the #7 bus but it sat
for almost 15 minutes while an attendant came around selling tickets.
We finally arrived at the port at 6:10 pm, still thinking that we had
plenty of time. We all headed into the port entrance and walked
toward the ship but soon found there was no way to get to the ship.
The piers are what seems like miles long, so the ship was across
several bays of water and we could not get around. We reversed
direction and went back out of the port and started walking up the
road to the second port entrance (where our bus had exited in the
morning). Some people were fortunate to hail taxis from the street to
drive them into the port, since it was a good three miles distance to
the actual ship where it was parked in the bowels of this disgusting
port. We were not so lucky. We alternated jogging and fast walking
while we watched the minutes tick by on our watches. Some people in
taxis vowed to send their drivers back for us. We finally did get in
a taxi (that was on itÕs way out) for the last half mile and we paid
him an enormous fee for that short distance. We arrived at the ship
about 6:45 and we were peeved to see many of the tour busses were
just arriving with their passengers. Needless to say, we were more
stressed than the morning fiasco, frustrated and very pissed off at
the lack of suitable facilities to get to and from the ship at this
port. We were pretty upset with the ship for not providing better
access to the train. They had provided train schedules but no way of
getting transport to and from the train station.
That evening, Jim and Bridget had planned on eating in the Italian
restaurant on board ship called SabatiniÕs. We had eaten there for
lunch one other day. Scott and Carrie invited us to eat at their
dinner table in their dining room (Boticelli) in Jim and BridgetÕs
place. They had taken an all day tour of Florence so we had not seen
them all day. They were intrigued by our story of the dayÕs escapades
with the train. It was French night so we had pate, orange duck,
cherries jubilee and raspberry crème brulee. It was all
wonderful. We all decided that if we wanted to stay up late and party
any night it would be this night since Monte Carlo was the next dayÕs
destination. We wouldnÕt mind being hung over for Monte Carlo since
we didnÕt have big plans to see anything. Having decided, we returned
to our room and had a glass of wine, but quickly switched to the rum
we had bought in NY at duty free. The only thing we had to mix with
our run was Fanta (orange soda) that we had picked up in Turkey. We
named the new drink "Frum". The four of us went to a really funny
comedy show in the Vista Lounge. The comedian joked about the ship
being "the prune barge". Following the show we mixed up more Frums
and then headed up to the hot tub. We tried to get Jim and Bridget to
join in the fun but they were already tucked into bed asleep so we
carried on without them. Once the Frums ran out and the hot tub
drained, we hit the Calypso bar for Gin and TonicÕs. The night
finally ended at 3 am after we crashed the Skywalker disco lounge in
our swimsuits with robes over them. Keith and Scott found a sleeping
waitress in a quiet part of the lounge. They tried to bribe her out
of directions to the crew bar because drinks are only $1 there. We
had a quick snack in the Horizon Court 24 hour buffet (French onion
soup leftover from dinner) and then crashed fully prepared for our
Monte Carlo hangovers. |
