Another beautiful early morning. We met for breakfast and were off the ship
and spotted Fabrizio just beyond the gangway.
We are on the way to Pisa by 7:30 AM.
We had to park a couple blocks away but Fabrizio walks with us to the
walled entrance. Teresa and Paige decide
they would like to climb the tower so we walk to the ticket office and find
that we are way too early for them to do that.
It doesn’t open for another hour and we need to be on our way before
then. We walked around and took the
usual photos…well except for Lindsay who thought the whole thing was stupid and
refused. I had great difficulty taking
photos because the sun was not up far enough and the area where you need to
take the photos was in shadows. I got
some but not everyone and we did have lots of fun posing for the photos. We stopped just outside the gate to get
coffee and they had free wifi so we spent some quality family time catching up
on social media for a few minutes.
The drive between Pisa and Florence is beautiful and pure
Tuscany as we know it from the movies.
We were off the expressway and driving through country roads when we
pull over. Fabrizio says we can have a “Japanese
moment”. The view was breathtaking. It seems there were miles of olive trees on
one side and grape vines on the other.
The landscape was dotted with farmhouses here and there. It definitely is the stuff beautiful
paintings are made of. Someone pulls out
of the driveway and the lady driving stops to talk with Fabrizio while we are
taking photos. He knows people
everywhere!
Our next stop is an overlook of the city of
Florence. We all needed to use the
restroom by this time and there was a line.
It was one euro each so we made sure everyone had a coin and got in the
line. We all were in awe when we
actually got in to use it as there was a man cleaning each stall after each use
with disinfectant. It was the cleanest
restroom we used the entire trip.
This overlook called Piazzale Michelangelo is the best
place to view all of the city. We took
lots of photos and Fabrizio took some family photos for us. There is an upper level that has shopping and
we spent some time looking at the souvenirs then it was time to go into the
city.
We arrive at the Galleria Dell’ Acccademia which is where
the famous statue of David is. We waited
in line to get in. This gallery is small
by most standards except the room where David is displayed. I think the kids are both embarrassed and
amused when we finally get in to view it.
When I was here the last time, they didn’t permit photographs at
all. Now you can take photos as long as
there is no flash. We walked the couple
blocks back to where Fabrizio had parked.
It was in front of a store and he obviously knew the owner. Teresa bought some little leather bracelets and
we are ready for the next stop.
 |
| David and the Family |
Fabrizio dropped us very close to Piazzo del Duomo which
is the famous cathedral. He told us
where to go to eat lunch. We were hungry
so we got right to the food. All of us
had pizza which was pan pizza. We like
the pizza we had earlier in the week better but this was tasty as well…just a
lot of bread but that was filling. We
walked around the plaza and Paige found a record store that had Beatles photos
and records. As we were walking around a
man was coming up to the girls putting bracelets on them. We practically had an argument trying to give
them back. First they tell you they are
free, then they follow you wanting you to give them a “donation”. We ran into the same thing at the Spanish
Steps where these men were giving the girls roses. We headed back to meet Fabrizio who didn’t
notice that Chris was standing at the passenger side window using his hand to
speak to Fabrizio in Italian hands. We
all had a good laugh and onto the next stop.
Ponte Vecchio is the famous bridge across the Arno
river. It is lined with jewelry shops
from one side to the other and literally packed with people. There are some great views from the middle of
the bridge. We did the photos and then
headed back to the market area to do some shopping. This area has lots of wool and cashmere items
at decent prices compared to the US.
Teresa and the others went to get gelato while Lindsay and I walked
around. When the others caught up we all
bought a few things here. I got Lindsay
a beautiful wool scarf and Chris and Paige got shirts. Soon it was time to go meet Fabrizio and head
back to Livorno and the ship.
When we got back we took some photos together and said
our goodbyes. It was hard to do after
spending three fun days with Fabrizio.
He and Christopholo had formed a bond.
He would joke with Paige because she always thought every dog she saw
was cute so he would yell “look Paige, it’s a dog and it’s so cute” in his
Italian accent and we would all laugh.
He thought Lindsay was really smart as she had taken Latin! Anyway, we will miss him but he definitely
made our days in Italy so much fun.
The Tip of the Day on the ship’s daily newspaper is “Washy,
Washy, Happy, Happy”. Everywhere on the
ship where the crew was waiting to spray you with hand sanitizer if you didn’t
use the dispensers by each entrance to the ship or food areas and as they
sprayed they would say the slogan.
We went to the Taste dining room for dinner and while the
food was good, the service was extremely slow.
The kids left and went to meet their friends at the teen club, I went
back to the cabin and Teresa and Keith had another night to themselves.
It is so hard to believe that after a year of planning
every detail of this trip, we are quickly closing in on the last days.
Day 5 of the cruise is in the books!
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