Rome and Silversea Day 6

Start of day: Heading to Livorno, Italy
End of day: Heading to València, Spain

Today the ship docked in Livorno, Italy, the Tuscan port that serves as the gateway to Florence and Pisa. On paper it’s one of the key stops of the whole itinerary. In practice, I’d just spent three full days walking Rome and dealing with jet lag, and I couldn’t muster much enthusiasm for a two-hour-each-way coach to Florence to speed-walk past the highlights¹. Everything I’ve read suggests Florence deserves better than that, and I’d rather save it for a proper family visit somewhere down the road. Using this logic, I scaled back my ambitions for Livorno itself and decided to keep it simple.

The ship ran a complimentary shuttle from the pier into the center of town. I hopped on with no itinerary and no agenda beyond walking the downtown a bit.

The white hull of the Silversea Silver Spirit moored at the Livorno cruise pier, with a white pop-up tent reading SILVERSEA SILVER SPIRIT set up dockside beside a small arrangement of café tables and potted shrubs, and a roped walkway leading to the ship's open hull doorway

Livorno’s center is pleasant and refreshingly unhurried after Rome.

A long covered portico walkway in central Livorno with a vaulted ceiling, hanging lantern-style lamps, shop fronts including a TIM store along the left, potted plants and green café chairs in the foreground, and pedestrians strolling down the sunlit colonnade

The one thing I did go out of my way to see was the Mercato Centrale, Livorno’s grand 19th-century covered market. It’s a soaring iron-and-glass hall packed wall to wall with stalls: butchers, bakers, cheesemongers, produce, and a few little eateries tucked in among them. Plus every type of seafood that exists, I think! I did a slow, aimless loop and just enjoyed the bustle. I’d love to live somewhere where we had a market like this available within walking distance. Oh the meals I’d cook!

Interior of Livorno's Mercato Centrale, a grand covered market with a high arched glass-and-iron roof, tall round-arched windows, stone flooring, and rows of vendor stalls including an 'Italian Restaurant' kiosk and a 'la spiga d'oro' bakery, with an 'INCANTO' hair salon to the left

That was about the extent of my exertion. I made a meandering path back to the shuttle stop after an hour or so.

Back on the ship, lunch was up on deck at La Terrazza, with a view back over the port:

An alfresco lunch table on the ship's deck set with a green salad topped with smoked salmon and shaved parmesan, a slice of bread with butter, two water glasses, and a folded napkin, with the deck railing, an orange life ring, and the Livorno waterfront and hills visible beyond

The rest of the afternoon I spent doing a whole lot of nothing. I parked at the coffee bar for a bit and worked on this journal, then retreated to my balcony with my Kindle.

A white illy-branded espresso cup and saucer beside a small plate holding a chocolate cookie and a glass dish of succulents, on a dark table by a window with the calm sea and pale evening sky visible through the railing behind

For dinner I ate solo in Atlantide, the main restaurant, at a window table right as we sailed away from Livorno. The menu, for the curious:

During dinner I leaned my phone against the window and grabbed this time-lapse of our sailaway:

After dinner, I had a great view from my veranda:

Later, after sunset, the pool deck started to come alive:

I also snapped a pic of the menu for Spaccanapoli, the ship’s Neapolitan pizza restaurant, for later reference:

The relaxed pace of the day helped me recharge my “travel batteries” after keeping a hectic pace since leaving home.

Footnotes:

Sort of like what my wife and I did in Paris on our honeymoon European cruise on Celebrity. Sure, it checks things off the list, but you don’t really see them, do you. ↩

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