While the trip had started off on a rather rocky note, by the time we arrived at our first stop in Italy, we were beginning to hit our groove.
Arrival in Livorno
Our cruise ship docked in Livorno, Italy at 6:00 AM and we were immediately hit with a bizarre concern: would we be able to exit the port?
Livorno’s cruise port is in an industrial area and for safety reasons, you are not allowed to walk from the ship to the city. The city provides shuttle buses to transport passengers to the city center of Livorno for 7 Euro (my 11 year old was free if I recall).
The problem was we had not picked up any Euros in the previous days and had only our credit cards. Additionally we had booked a non-ship excursion so NCL would not cover our transportation for us.
We called the Guest Services in the early morning and were told the buses only accept cash. I then checked for any blogs or YouTube videos by recent cruise ship passengers that might know better (because we were quickly realizing the NCL staff seemed to be rather uninformed). We found one blog that mentioned paying by credit card.
Finally, since our family ocean view cruise cabin on the 5th floor was right above the gangway on the 4th (it really was an ideal location), I just exited the ship and walked over to the shuttle bus ticketers.
I want everyone here to know: THE SHUTTLE BUS TICKETERS IN LIVORNO, ITALY DO ACCEPT CREDIT CARDS. So no worries. But do stop by an ATM when you arrive in Europe or wherever you go soon after arrival and get some of the local currency.
I bought our shuttle bus tickets from the nice lady who told me I could just show our receipts and hop straight onto the bus when my family returned with me an hour later. There was indeed a much longer line when we were all ready to depart so perhaps as a tip to all the cruise passengers out there hoping to save time, either be off the ship right when the gangway opens or have one of your party buy the bus tickets on arrival and save time with boarding the bus later.
After we had all showered and eaten some breakfast, we walked off the ship and right onto the bus, getting dark looks from the poor souls in the bus line who thought we must be somehow cutting even though we had receipts. Once onboard it was a quick ten minute ride to the center of Livorno.
We had two cities planned for the day: Lucca and Pisa. Most of the cruise passengers make the jaunt to Florence. And that is understandable. I went to Florence when I was 24 years old and the city is filled with some of the greatest art and architecture of all of Italy. Really the world.
But coming on a cruise stop is difficult since you are arriving in a time window with other day trippers and even in the year 2000 the city was absolutely crushed by tourists midday. Additionally if you go to Florence via train from the cruise ship don’t try to go elsewhere during the day. Make it your only stop or you will see very little. More on that in the Rome section.
We decided to find another Tuscan town that would be a lot more relaxed but still give us the opportunity to really enjoy Tuscany. After quite a bit of reading and video watching we decided Lucca was the place. Close enough to visit by train too, with Pisa a logical stop along the way.
But just to give you an idea of the logistics of this cruise port, from the point where you are dropped off by the port shuttle buses you still have to take another bus to the train station. And then the trains take you to the local train stations in Lucca and Pisa which aren’t right by the areas you want to visit. In Pisa it’s an hour walk.
After considering that reality, we found a Lucca and Pisa On Your Own tour offered by the Shore Excursions group. I decided it was ideal for our purposes and would remove some of the logistical hurdles from this cruise stop.
We got into Livorno an hour before our excursion would depart from the same city square, which gave us time to shop for necessities and to stop at an ATM.
One complication with the tour was that if you wanted to go up the leaning tower you’d have to know exactly when you’d be in Pisa. I knew in advance that to climb the tower you were limited to a time slot and that those time slots would fill up quickly in the primary tourist season.
You can buy those tickets in advance here from the official site: Piazza del Duomo in Pisa. Notre that third party vendors sell these tickets for a massive markup. Don’t waste your money.
But again, now that we were on an On Your Own excursion I had to know when we’d be in Pisa. So from reading the tour description and the start times….if it was an hour from Livorno to Lucca and the tour started at 10:30 AM, then we’d spend 3 hours in Lucca before a half our bus ride to Pisa, where we would spend 1.5 hours. So we’d be in Pisa from 3PM until 4:30 PM. If the description was accurate.
So I held my breath and bout tickets for 3:45 for the tower. If we missed going up at least we’d have ticket entry to everything else in the square. Again, it was an On Your Own tour so they were providing no tickets to anything but were just providing transportation to the cities.
Once the tour time arrived we boarded a surprisingly full tour bus (it appeared that a couple different cruise lines were in port and it was a popular excursion) and off we went on our way to Lucca.
Lucca
Lucca was one of my favorite places on the trip. It was relaxed and offered a real taste of genuine Tuscany without the massive crowds we would have faced in Florence.
We arrived in Lucca just outside the city walls and proceeded through the huge gates into the historic city center. We made our very necessary stop for gelato first and wound our way through the labyrinth of narrow streets (with cars and trucks sometimes passing through) to find first the Piazza dell’Anfiteatro, then the Guinigi Tower.
Guinigi Tower
We read about the Guinigi Tower in the months prior to the trip and that not only was it the tallest structure in Lucca, but trees were growing on top of it. And you could climb to the top via 233 steps.
After enjoying Guinigi Tower we wanted to go ride bicycles on the city wall. It’s a popular activity and our youngest Evan really wanted to do it (and so did we).
The bicycle rentals were over near where we entered the city through the wall so we started back in that direction. As we were going, Daniel noticed a Torture Museum. It wasn’t mentioned as being a highlight of the city in any guides, but I figured we could afford to make a quick stop there.
The Turture Museum was small and obviously macabre. It had some interesting exhibits but overall it was a bit of a time waster since we only had three hours in Lucca. Most of these devices of torture can be seen in other novelty museums and they didn’t have any real relevance to Lucca (thankfully).
After exiting the museum we made a swift walk to the bicycle rentals. We rented four bikes and chains to lock them and off we went on the path atop the city wall.
City Wall
The ride was really easy going and enjoyable. We still needed to eat lunch and along the way I saw what looked like it would be a good place to get some pizza (because what else would be a higher priority on our first day in Italy).
The pizza was indeed very good and authentic. Shelley had a calzone.
One thing I enjoy about eating at restaurants in Europe is the seating is usually at least half outdoors. I like eating outdoors because it feels more relaxed and it’s less of an echo chamber with loud diners (which we are not). Also it’s fun to watch birds and other critters hop around nearby.
After our meal we hopped back on the bikes and completed the circuit of the city wall. At that point we didn’t have much time left so we quickly went to get some souvenirs (I have a shot glass collection and I needed one from Lucca), and then we walked back through the gate to the waiting tour bus.
The bus was pretty hot. I’m not sure what the issue was with the air conditioning, but it was not very comfortable. Pisa was even hotter.
Pisa
I had mentioned earlier that I bought the Leaning Tower entrance tickets a couple months in advance and chose what I assumed would be the middle of our visit time. We actually arrived a little later than 3 PM and then the parking area was about a half mile from the Piazza del Duomo.
So once we arrived in the piazza we were very hot and we needed to get a quick drink, then get in line to enter the tower. But we did indeed get there at the right time for the entrance tickets.
The Piazza was also very crowded, unlike Lucca. There were thousands of people in the walled courtyard and it was definitely a foreshadowing of what to expect in Rome the next day.
Leaning Tower
The climb to the top of the tower is a little disorienting since you really feel the lean. As you are ascending into the lean it feels like you are on a gentler slope that suddenly gets steeper as you wind your way around the tower. Shelley did not fell well on the steps and decided not to climb the whole way.
At the top you have the satisfaction of seeing the surrounding duomo and baptistry as well as the surrounding city. Pisa is also very pretty, but crowded.
After enjoying the views and seeing the bells atop the bell tower (it is after all a bell tower that happens to lean), Shelley and Evan decided to start back on the walk to the bus. The heat and the busy day were definitely fatiguing.
Duomo
Daniel and I had entrance tickets for the other sites in the Piazza and first went to the Duomo.
I have been in many cathedrals around the world and I found the one in Pisa is among the most impressive. It’s certainly on par with the more famous Duomo of Florence, even if it doesn’t have Brunelleschi’s dome. Of course I do need to get back to Florence some day.
Unfortunately I realized later my camera lens had now acquired a smudge so some of the photos look a little out washed out at the bottom. But I still got some good camera and video coverage in Pisa.
After briefly enjoying the Duomo, we went to the nearby Baptistry.
Baptistry
The Baptistry was nearly as ornate but was also a very interesting visit. We walked to the upper level and around to see a great view of the piazza toward the Duomo and Leaning Tower. I recommend watching the video linked above for a better view since the photos were affected by the lens issue.
Camposanto
Daniel encouraged me to to go to one more interesting structure just to the north of the Baptistry. The maps called it the Camposanto but I really didn’t know what it was at first. We learned shortly after that it housed the tombs of many great Pisans, including Leonardo Fibonacci.
Of course, being a computer programmer, finding Fibonacci’s tomb was extra fun (1,2,3,5,8,13,21….). Yu can see more in the video of our exploration.
Afterward we jogged back toward the bus until we were sure that we were safely on time (and caught up to Shelley and Evan). We stopped for a few more souvenirs and then hopped on the bus back.
Interestingly the bus took us all the way back to the cruise ship. I’m not sure why we were able to be driven in on the return, but it was a nice time saver.
In the next blog post we’ll continue on to Rome.
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