Sunday - Pisa & Florence

(OK, so I'm already home now but at the rates the cruise ship was charging it was getting way too expensive to sign up for more internet time. And then my "global" access plan didn't work in our terminal at the Rome airport - even though it had worked in baggage claim. Go figure!)

We docked in Livorno early in the morning and the ship made enough noise to wake us all up early. We dragged ourselves out of bed (it’s getting harder each day!) and met our private tour guide, Suzanna, for our tour of Pisa and Florence. We were fortunate and arrived at Pisa before most of the large tour buses arrived, so it was fairly quiet and there was still a bit of misty light which made for some nice photos that even I couldn’t mess up too badly.

We got back on the bus and drove the hour to Florence. I loved this place but didn’t get to see near enough of it. We didn’t get to go into any of the major museums as we’d have spent all our time in line. We did get to walk along the courtyard of the Uffizi and see various statues of famous people from Florence. There’s a scale replica of the famous David statue outside the Uffizi, but unfortunately it was covered in scaffolding. We checked out Florence’s cathedral, which is the fourth longest in the world, but didn’t go in. We did, however, get to see the famous doors on its baptistery, which are called “The Gates of Paradise”. Later, a couple of us took a quick tour of Santa Croce. It’s another large church, still in use, but it’s also a museum and there are a number of famous people buried there: Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Machiavelli, Enrico Fermi and Marconi, just to name a few. By then we were out of time and had to head back to the bus. Before we left for the port, we drove up to a fantastic overlook on Michelangelo Drive that provided amazing views of the city as well as allowing us to see some of the original Roman walls.

I’d love to come back to this part of the world when I have more time. Florence, Venice and Rome, especially, it seemed like we didn’t have a hope of seeing everything. Since we didn’t actually go into Naples, I’d like to do that and I’d also like to spend some more time in Barcelona. Hmmm…methinks another trip is in order!

Let the countdown to ski season begin!