Wednesday 23 May 2018. We come into the port of Livorno, primarily an industrial port.
A ship to the side of our cabin is already unloading large bales of wood pulp onto lorries and has still not finished when we leave the port at eight oclock that night.
The Kaluga, off our port side, is an oil tanker, built in 2003 and registered in Liberia. I was looking online for a reason why it might be apparently pouring water out of its anchor ports all day, but without any success. Any nautically knowledgable replies will be given due consideration!
From here, tours set out by coach to both Florence and Pisa. You can even do both in one day. We've been here before a few times so this time we have decided to have a walk through Livorno itself, though that will involve getting a shuttle bus through the port as it's a large and maze-like place with lots of lorries and cranes moving about so you are not allowed to walk through the port.
The shuttle bus drops us off at a shopping mall in the centre of the (admittedly quite small) town. But we have forgotten our map and have no idea which way we are facing... We do know that the town is ringed by canals because one year we took a boat trip along them. So I assumed that if we walk in a straight line we will eventually come to a canal. All well and good. Except that Miss Franny doesn't like walking in straight lines and keeps saying "We'll go this way..." until not only do I not know which way I'm facing but I have no idea how to get back to the shuttle bus stop!
So we just set off. I know the canals go all the way round the town so we are bound to come to them sooner or later even walking in zig-zags and as long as we can eventually find our way back we'll be ok. Worst case scenario is stopping people and asking for MacDonalds which might make us appear to the Italians like the ultimate in food buffoons but would get us to the bus stop!
And look-it! A canal. Now, as I said, we have previously done a boat trip along them. But as you can see here, they are set quite low down so from a small boat you don't see much apart from the top storeys of buildings...
From today's viewpoint we could revel in the architecture of such things as doors, kerb stones, all manner of things.
The sun was bright. The temperature was climbing. My vitamin D levels were replenished to bursting. I was running out of things to say...
At around this point we crossed a road, watching for cycles which, a bit like Amsterdam, have their own little road at the side of the main road and which seem to come in both directions regardless of what side of the road you are crossing. A young lady on a bike stopped and waved us on to cross which we did with a wave. As she started to push off, I saw another bike whizzing up behind her and saved her life (well, saved her from injury at least) as the prat zoomed by just an inch or two from her.
You can have too much of a good thing - even canals, so we went in search of a drink which I found in a deserted cafe. So deserted that there was no one in sight behind the counter... I called out "Ciao!" and there was a muffled acknowledgement from the door to the kitchens and I bought drinks and we sat at a table on the pavement watching people stagger past with bags overflowing with veg and fruit from the large market hall up the road.
A bit of shade came as a relief as we headed back - or forward - to wherever we were going, because we had no idea... Hey it's not even dinner time yet, no problem!
We ended up at a huge piazza. This is (though I didn't know it at the time) the Piazza della Repubblica and confused me by being built lengthwise over a canal. I mean - fancy doing that to a man with no map! It was built in 1844, requiring the demolition of one of Livorno's old city gates and joined the centre of Livorno to the east of the town where new districts were growing.
It had statues of both Ferdinand III and Leopold II, the latter being damaged by a crowd in 1849 and thereafter removed. He was seen as a symbol of Austrian domination. We picked a street at random and followed it all the way to a familiar bit and then for the first time in my life I felt a surge of relief upon finding MacDonalds!
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