Europe 2011 - Day 9



The Franciscan's Leather School

We docked at Livorno, Italy which is the gateway to Florence and Pisa.

We knew how to get to the local train station by taking the Carnival shuttle to the center of the town and then a local bus to the train station. So we were out of the cabin early and on the 9:28am train to Florence, skipping Pisa. It took the train about 1 ½ hours to get there.

Our round trip cost for the train was $33 dollars total and Carnival charged $180 per couple to take their bus to Florence and return. The only danger in using local transportation is that if you don’t get back to the ship on time, you are on your own to make it to the next port – more about that later.

We met a nice couple and their daughter from Canada on the train trip and shared some fun experiences until they got off at Pisa. Once we got to Florence it was off the train and into a taxi to take us to the Church of Santa Croce, the largest Franciscan church in Europe and also home to a leather-working school taught by the Franciscan Priests.



Barb's scarf is here



We found the school in the back of the church and wow was their workmanship fantastic - as were their prices. But it was fun to visit this school.

We ate lunch in a little café and then spend the rest of our time in Florence in the big open air markets that specialized in leather goods and scarves. Florence is the leather capital of Europe as far as leather clothing is concerned and we had a lot of fun and bought some “needed” items.

It took us longer than expected to get a taxi to the train station and we were within 50 yards from our train as it was pulling out. The next train was to leave at 3:48pm which would still put us back in the port in time to make the ship, but not with a lot of time to spare.



Buying a purse

As we were waiting for the train to leave, the conductor came by and told us that things had changed and we had 6 minutes to get to another train, which would take us to Pisa and then we would have to transfer to another train to get to the port. There were about 30 from the ship altogether when we got off the train at Pisa at 5:15pm and waited for the next train. We were supposed to board the ship by 6:00pm and the ship would pull out at 6:30pm. We arrived at the port train station at 5:50pm and jumped into the only cab around. We made it to the ship at 6:03pm!! That was way too close.

Dinner was with our new table and we are enjoying everyone.

After dinner, Ed qualified for the blackjack tournament; however, in the finals he did not win. He was in second place going into the last round and his last hand if he would have gotten one of 68% of the cards, he would have won – but he didn’t. Maybe next time.



The Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fore

We had a very long day today so we decided not to play in the casino but make it an early night.

Tomorrow is a sea day, a slot tournament and the first formal night – life is good in paradise.

Don't forget you can click on any picture to make it bigger.  Night for now.

Sunset from our deck