Lucca and Pisa and ship life

February 9, 2024

We sailed from Civitavecchia on the 7th and woke up on the 8th in Livorno, the port city that would allow us to visit both Lucca and Pisa and/or Florence. Also some tours into Tuscany. This area is considered Tuscany.

Unfortunately the good weather has disappeared for a bit and we have clouds and some wind and cooler temps along with some rain. Our tour to Lucca and Pisa left at 10:30 a.m. After a 1 3/4 hour drive, including a brief pit stop, we arrived in this city which is one of the most preserved cities in Italy. The wall surrounding it remains totally intact and the town has turned a section of the wall into a walkway/bike way for the community. As you walk through the city walls you are indeed taken back to a much earlier time with narrow cobblestone streets, ancient churches and bell towers, lots of shops and restaurants. I can only imagine what Lucca feels like on a warm, sunny day. But not today. The rain/drizzle started almost immediately and lasted for about 3/4 of the tour. Then the clouds remained and it did feel a bit damp (probably because of the wet raincoats we were wearing. 

Once we were on our own we found a restaurant (little hole in the wall), but warm and inviting and it continued to fill up with patrons, both local and cruisers like us. We each enjoyed a hearty bowl of traditional vegetable soup to warm us up and it did the trick. Full of tomatoes, zucchini, celery, beans, onions, bread (yes the bread was already in the soup), we ate every last bit. Then we shared a Margherita pizza, plenty of food for us. No wine or beer today - I had had enough the night before - oops!

Following lunch we still had one hour on our own so we wandered a bit looking for stores that might still be open - unfortunately stores here in Italy close over the lunch hour only to open again at 3:30 or 4pm. That’s my one frustration with these locked-in tours - they don’t seem to take that into account so we struggled to fill the hour. I did find a nice candy/bakery and had a couple pieces of chocolate and a small piece of fried pasta with powdered sugar - yummy. 

As it’s carnival season over here in Italy we were entertained by some fun paper mache sculptures around the city including a tiger. the Rolling Stones (apparently the Stones came to this city in the recent past for a concert, which was a huge thing for the residents), and finally a group of individuals I will leave you to decide. The Rolling Stones were my personal favorite.

Following Lucca we headed to Pisa. It was late afternoon at this point - no more rain but still cloudy and cool. You have to walk about 15 minutes into the area of Pisa that has the iconic leaning tower, baptistry, cathedral, and cemetery. Very touristy as you can imagine but this time of year not nearly the crowds that are usually here - again, can’t imagine traveling here at the height of the season. So we heard the story of the leaning tower (I had probably heard it once before but no memories of that), along with the other buildings and then had time on our own to visit the buildings or climb the tower, etc. Shopping was touristy and not interesting.  

By the time we were set to meet to head back to the ship we were very tired and I was starting to feel a bit under the weather. We arrived back at 7pm and immediately headed to the warm ‘spa’ pool with steam and sauna, snow grotto etc. That was a welcome relaxation after a long day, We then ate at the world cafe (not the dining room at this time of night a we didn’t want to get ‘dressed up’). Food was delicious as they were doing a “taste of Italy” so our dinner was at 8:30pm. 

We had decided at this point that I could not face an all day excursion on Friday into Florence that had us leaving at 7:20 a.m. Plus the weather forecast was for 100% rain. I could feel the cold coming on and sure enough over night - it blossomed. So we are spending a leisurely day on the ship and perhaps tomorrow as well, if the weather for Monte Carlo calls for rain as well. Disappointing yes, but there are worse places to lounge around than this cruise ship with all its amenities. Heading back to the ‘spa’ pool, steam room, etc. this afternoon but otherwise taking it slow so I can recover and be able to enjoy the remainder of our time.

Ciao from Livorno, the port city in which we are docked.

Betsy