Livorno & Florence

On the 13th July, we set sail in a fabulous southerly wind pushing us the 44NM’s sail to Livorno. Despite the sailing conditions, there were very few boats about, although we do have to admit that we were overtaken at times, not quite having the same sail surface area of one beautiful yacht, could we really expect not to be!

The wind did leave us about an hour out from Livorno, so engine it was.. until we arrived in the rather large industrial port set up for lots of ferries and cruise liners, no doubt because of its proximity to Pisa and Florence, and worked our way through to where all the “smaller” boats moored up and found that the free transit quay had space for us! Unlike San Remo, our time here wasn’t limited which meant we would have time to visit Florence, one of our favourite cities in the World! The only downside was every morning and evening we were surrounded by nearly 20 fishermen sat on the quay in between the boats, not that we saw them catch a single fish, still it was a bit like being a fish in a fishbowl!

Before doing anything else, we of course had to check in with the Guardia Costeria, David dutifully went off with the ships papers into a very large building, looking a bit bemused, to be met by a very young Demi Moore lookalike, complete with all white naval uniform, who had he been 30 years younger and single would probably have asked her out for dinner, she then proceeded to help him and took him to about 7 different offices before finally being told that they didn’t need to see our papers as they only required to be handed in when we were leaving Italy this season. Apart from the eye candy, it was a complete waste of time!

So our first sight seeing stop was Livorno itself, which we have never been to before and were totally surprised by. Expecting it to just be an industrial town servicing all of the above, we found it to be charming, with a broad boulevard street, running up the middle and off to the side, the “Quartiere Venezia (New Venice District)” with lots of tiny canals and waterways full to the brim with little speedboats and ribs.

Livorno

In fact Livorno is the most important port city in Tuscany and has a very long history, being founded in 1017 as a coastal fortress to defend Pisa It has 2 forts, the old and the new, a cathedral, museums, its own naval academy and monuments that could almost be worthy of Florence, the first of which we came across just outside the port was the Four Moors statue, made between 1623 and 1626 by Pietro Tacca, showing four bronze Moors in chains at the base of a pedestal, where a marble statue of the Grand Duke Ferdinand I (made by Giovanni Bandini) stands. The statue is a symbol of victory over the pirates in the Tuscan seas. The moors were huge and the detail magnificent!

The rest of Livorno wasn’t too shabby either!

And it didn’t take long to find the Quartiere Venezia district, full of boats of course, but also bars, restaurants, life and such a chilled out atmosphere, definitely a place to stop for a Charcuterie plate and some local vino!

The next day, being a Sunday and probably not the best day of the week to go to Florence, we decided to work on Seaclusion, polishing part of her topsides, patching up the paddle board which had sprung a small leak along one of its seams, enough to deflate it over time for sure! A fruitful day it was, or so we thought…

Monday arrived, and our trip to Florence by train. We left early because the heat was ranking up now, and were somewhat grateful we did as we completely underestimated how far outside of Livorno centre the train station was… 45 minutes at a good healthy pace, still it gave us the chance to see some of the other parts of Livorno we hadn’t seen yet.

Still Livorno!

Finally we found the train station with just enough time to get a ticket and jump on a train which took a little over an hour to travel the 100KM’s to Florence, at least the train station there was only 5 minutes to the heart of the city.

Anyway we are sure Florence needs no introduction so, for now, we will let the pics do the taking.

Florence

and of course we have the Ponte Vecchio Bridge!

and all the beautiful shops…. in fact we couldn’t help but have a nose in Gucci, even though those days are now passed. I picked out a small simple brown bag, not too dissimilar to my 22 year old one. I have to say that David was very proud of my poker face when they told me the princely price of it (3100 euros), although we did make a rather rapid exit and headed to the markets selling non-branded but still good leather handbags and after some haggling we left with a new rucksack styled bag to replace my very old and tatty boat one, for 10% of the Gucci price tag! Who needs designer stuff these days anyway!

We also had a chuckle at these… Willy for a name, and a shop that sells nothing but rubber ducks, what’s that all about?

Finally we headed back to the station to catch the train back to Livorno, and this time, a bus from its station to the port, we had done a lot of walking by then!

We actually stayed in Livorno a total of 5 days waiting for the right winds to get to the Tuscan archipelago which included Elba. The only other notable thing that happened during our stay was that our patching up of the paddle board hadn’t worked, well the patch had but there was a second leak on the opposite side, so a second patch was required, dutifully done. However it was only as we walked off the boat to go for a drink that I realised that I had been a complete idiot and put the second patch on the wrong seam, being the one without the leak, not one of my finest moments! I think the waiter at the little pizza restaurant sensed I need cheering up….

The 18th brought some favourable winds and without much ado, we set off towards the first access Island of the Tuscan archipelago, Capraia.

18th July 2024