Terrific Day in Tuscany

Thursday Livorno, Italy
April 30
7:10 PM

A long beautiful day in the Tuscany Region of Italy. We were up at 6 and on the bus by 7:30. It was a two hour bus ride to Florence. Our group of 38 people was fortunate to have “chatterbox” male guide of 30 who made the long day fly by. Our tour of Florence was basically a walking tour hitting the highlights of the downtown area where the renaissance had its center. The first fact we learned was that Leonardo da Vinci was born in 1452 23 years later Michelangelo was born also in Tuscany. They had a rivalry and Michelangelo won the competition to sculpt the David which is probably the world’s best know statute which was supposed to signify the banishment of Medicis from Florence but they returned and to cover up the slight managed to fill Piazza Della Signoria square with many more statutes. The actual David is now inside a museum (the Academy) and a copy now occupies its original place. The Santa Maria Del Fiore Cathedral (Duomo), the baptistery, and clock tower in the center of Florence are most beautiful we have seen. We had a special local guide who gave us much information via a radio headset that worked well but it was somewhat hard to understand all of her English.

About 2 PM after we had seen Michelangelo burial place (the church of Santa Croce) and had a very nice wine tasting we traveled another few blocks where in a private dining area we had a superb Italian meal of lasagna and chicken with Tiramisu and a shared bottle of wine (the two other people at our table of four did not drink). Needless to say it was delightful and I believe the Lasagna was the best ever again.

After lunch we boarded the bus and returned via a divided highway back toward Livorno stopping a Pisa for a little over an hour. In the Miracle Square there is another Cathedral, Baptistery, and Clock tower combination. The Baptistery is the world’s largest and there has always been a problem with the bell tower. However a few years a German architect was able to change the subsoil and the leaning has been corrected to about what it was 300 years ago. There were plenty of tourists at all sites. There were 5 buses of 38 each from the Noordam.

We rolled back to the ship just after 6: PM. The day was very night a bit chilly this morning and a few drops of rain just before lunch but by Pisa it was truly sunny with fluffy clouds just like Michelangelo painted on the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Surely a terrific day in Tuscany.

In a few minutes we will try to eat again. For this leg we have changed our table to eliminate a cool air draft and now sit at window table for four. So we should see the ship move out of port as we eat as the schedule says we leave at 8 PM.

Well it is a short report and tomorrow is Monaco with another tour just the morning I believe. So instead of averederci I will just say ciao for now.