Our first port of call, Livorno Italy.

6/9/12

A bunch of people on board took organised tours to Florence and Pisa today but I was considering staying on the ship today and having a poke around, then doing a computer course in the afternoon. It would be nice to have a relaxing day. 

Curiosity got the better of me so leaving Suzanne in bed I jumped ship and caught the shuttle bus into Livorno. Livorno is a bit like Fremantle. It's a port city that is geared up for tourism. I did find an interesting market in the back streets. The fish and vegetables smelt amazing. You just don't get that in a supermarket where everything is wrapped in plastic. I can see some changes in lifestyle happening when we get home from this trip.

Great fruit and vege market.

Need a button. Yes, every one of those boxes is full of buttons.

One very noticeable thing we've found throughout Europe is the they do statues very well. They're everywhere. I guess when you have a long history it will be full of events worth commemorating. Here are a couple from Livorno.

An explanation of the statue above.

There are two of these statues, on each side if the road entering town. I hope they never come to life.

So that was the central part of Livorno. It was interesting, but after our rides around out of the way places in other countries, cities and tourist traps just don't do it for me.

I shuttled back to the ship for lunch and met up wit the rest of the crew. We decided to hire a cab and visit Pisa in the afternoon. 

Here we are visiting a building that looks like it's in need of renovation.

Cheap touristy shot.

Everyone takes photos making it look like they are holding up the tower. You see hundreds of people doing it while you are there. I decided to do something different...

Close up shot of the 3D carving in the cathederal doors.

Suzanne fell in lovewith this old guy riding his pushy and took a heap of photos of him. I thought I'd better post one.

On the way back to the ship we drove past a HUGE US Airforce base. it was enormous. I counted about fourty C130 Hercules aircraft, and they were the ones I cold see. God knows what was in all the giant hagars that were there. Then we spotted this one coming in to land.

Crappy shot, but it was out of the taxi window and at normal Italian driving speed.

Back on board Suzanne and I hit the Crow's Nest for happy hour and the trivia quiz. We were by ourselves and as we were sitting at the bar we met a couple from Adelaide.

Meet Annie (left) and Kevin (right). Manny their travel agent is in the middle.

We got on really well with these guys and spend quite a lot of time together on the cruise. This generated a few stories that will be revealed in later blogs. Doesn't Kev look cute in his pink shirt sipping a blue cocktail?

Tomorrow it's Monaco. I might need to raise the limit on my credit card.