Livorno - Gateway to Tuscany

Thursday May 7 2009 - And now, the end is near, day 107, we had planned to take a tour of Cinque Terre, but cancelled last minute as we decided we would need the time for packing. We did manage to get off for a couple of hours and much as I love Italy, we were not surprised that we were ripped-off in Livorno much as we were in the other Italian ports, it’s a shame because otherwise Italy is a beautiful place. This time the port wouldn’t allow anyone to walk out and you were required to take a taxi or pay $10 each for a shuttle out of the dock area, it’s not that big a deal, just one more added to the 3 euro charge for a 2 euro map, the 80 euro snack, both in Venice and the short timed taxi in Messina. I can’t think of any other ports where we felt cheated, some ports also had shuttles which you paid for, but none were anything like as expensive as Livorno and all left you the option to walk instead. Anyway, enough complaints, I still love Italy and will undoubtedly come back. Not much to see in Livorno, we had a walk around the market and then a walk around the historical area, it’s not really a tourist town, guess that’s why everyone goes to Florence or Pisa or Lucca or other places. The other memorable thing was that the shuttle said it operated every half hour, we waited 20 minutes to return to the ship and when he arrived he wouldn’t let anyone on as he was going for his lunch, we were supposed to wait for the next one. It took some arguing from some passengers before he eventually agreed to take us back to the port before he went for lunch.

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