Thursday, September 29, 2011

Mediterranean Cruise - Day 5: Livorno & Florence, Italy

{These posts are taken from emails that I sent to the girls everyday during our trip.}



Bon Journo from Italy!

We arrived in Italy early this morning.  The port where the ship docks is not very pretty - it is very industrial, which means that there are a lot of business warehouse buildings and machinery and rusty boats and equipment on the docks.  Livorno must be a working port, while the ports in France were more recreational (meaning, fun!).  Daddy and I got up and ran 3 miles again while our ship docked.  It was not as pretty as the other morning that we ran, but it was still fun to be running while the ship was moving and other cruise ships around us were docking, too.

We had quite an adventure today!  Florence, Italy is a very famous town in Italy because it has a lot of ancient/old churches and artwork by a famous artist named Michaelangelo.  Florence is 90 minutes from Livorno where the ship docked, so we had to get there somehow.  We took a bus from the ship to Livorno, then a bus from Livorno to the train station, then a train to Florence.  We had no idea what we were doing and we don't speak or read Italian, so it was amazing that we got to Florence!  

When we got there we walked from the train station to a museum that holds one of Michaelangelo's most famous statues - David.  We stood in line for about 20 minutes before we found out that the line was 3 hours long - and we didn't have that much time!  So we left the line and started off on seeing Florence on our own.  The biggest problems, though, were that it was 90+ degrees outside and there were so many people in Florence that you could hardly see anything or do anything because the lines were so long.  We got to the main pilazzo (square) and were overwhelmed by the people and the heat that we decided to have some lunch instead of fighting the crowds to see anything.  So we had some bruschetta (bread with diced tomatos) and a plate of cheese and a bottle of white wine, Ovierto.  It was deliciouso!  We enjoyed that more than waiting in line for anything!  

After that we explored the city a little bit and looked in some of the shops.  We started to walk uphill to see a garden, but figured out that we didn't have enough time to do it so instead we made our way back to the train station.  We did really good getting there in time for the train, but then the train ride ended in a city called Pisa and the next train to Livorno was coming later than we had hoped and we were worried we'd miss the bus back to the ship!  We ended up running into some friends that we met and who had taken the train into Florence with us and they were getting on the same train.  When we finally got to Livorno and found the bus, we got on and so did a ton of other people.  The bus was so crowded I didn't think the doors would close!  And it was still 90+ degrees outside and hotter inside!  And the stinkiness was back - but I think we were included this time!  The bus got us back to the place where we were supposed to get on the Royal Caribbean charter bus to get us back to the ship, but the last charter bus had left already, so we had to find a cab for 12 people!  It was really stressful, but it was a fun adventure!

After we got back we were still sweaty and sticky and exhausted, so we went to the bar with our friends and got some fruity drinks to cool off.  It was a fun day!  Daddy and I are soooo tired!  And I have a blister on my toe!  

Tomorrow we are going to climb a volcano that erupted a long time ago and completely covered a city called Pompeii.  we're going to climb the volcano and see Pompeii - it will be a 5 1/2 mile hike!

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