Today we got up bright and early to get off the ship at 7 am for our small group tour of eight people to Florence and Pisa. It took about an hour or so to get from the Livonia cruise port to Florence. Our first stop was Michelangelo Plaza where we overlooked the city of Florence. It was breathtaking. I don’t take that term lightly. It was so beautiful looking down and seeing the river, the basilica and all the other beautiful buildings and settings. This is how the Italy of my imagination looks.
This is also where we saw streets getting blocked off and screeching cars below. Through the day there were many other areas blocked and helicopters flying around above. We came to discover Michael Bay is filming his new romantic comedy in Florence… Just kidding… His new Netflix action series Six Underground.
From the Plaza we made our way down into the city and met our guide for a two hour walking tour of Florence. Our guide was good, a no-nonsense Italian woman that reminds me of Aunt Peggy. She talked a little about Florence in general before we went to see “David.” It really is an impressive sculpture when you are standing in front of it in person. This is another case where I didn’t really understand it’s scale and how big it is. Also standing close it is absolutely crazy to me how intricate David is. I don’t have an artistic bone in my body so I really was in awe of it.
From here we walked down the streets and made our way to the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore which has the famous red cupola and Giotto’s Bell Tower right next to it. Right across the street was the “Baptisere” which is the oldest religious building still standing in Florence. Again, awe at these buildings that are so so beautiful and so so old. There had to be in excess of 100 life size sculptures on the church and bell tower, each one would be amazing in their own right, but they are just .01% of sculptures, paintings, stonework and everything else that makes up this area.
We then saw some other old structures that survived the war, from the old tower houses to the Ponte Vecchio (the old bridge.) The bridge was cool looking and now houses all the gold vendors. We also heard extensively about the history of the Medicis. They were a banking family that rose to prominence in the first half of the 15th century and funded much of Italy’s Renaissance activity. They had the Cappelle Medicee (Medici Castle) built as well as private passageways between the various buildings of the Uffizi, which includes the oldest art museum. Of this part of the tour, my favorite was the bridge with the vendors on it. There were buildings on both sides with all the gold vendors and it just looked so Italy from the river’s edge.
Following our two hour tour, we were cut loose to wander for two hours. Out guide had pointed out a good area to eat that had more local restaurants and wasn’t so touristy, and she also showed us where one of the oldest gelato places was, (that she considers the best.) We had pizza at Il Grande Nutti… I had spicy sausage (so good,) and Kory had a Fiorentina pizza with thin salami, peppers and some other Mediterranean toppings like olives or something… so his was way more authentic. Then we made our way to Festival del Gelato and got the first Gelato of my life. I am boring so I just got caramel and vanilla and Kory got dark chocolate and caramel for his flavors. They were both good. I am not a sweets eater generally, but I think as far as deserts go, they were pretty tasty.
After we wandered a bit more we met back up with our driver and went to Pisa. Not much doing in Pisa, except for the leaning tower. I think once you get the obligatory picture there is not much else exciting to do in this area. I am happy we went, but don’t need to go back again.
We were back to port just a couple minutes after 4 pm, but had to wait a little over an hour to get back on the Epic because they had to move her from where she was parked in the morning over to a different dock because other traffic had to get through. Our driver said he had never seen that happen. He was a funny nice fellow… didn’t speak much English but was like an uber driver… offering water, wipes, sanitizer, candy, and ended the tour by giving us Florence magnets.
We went back on the ship and headed to the Shakers Martini Bar. We are going to make our way through this list of martinis before the end of the cruise, I know that! Citrus Gem, French Raspberry, Apple Blossom, Le Fizz, Lavendar Patch, Peach Nectar, Aviation, Basil Cucumber Twist, Rum Caske and a few more……… Sooooooo goooooood.
Then we went to the 7 pm show… “Priscilla, Queen of the Dessert,” one of our faves! It was so well done for a cruise ship… probably the best cruise ship show I have seen. Makes me excited for the other shows we are going to see.
For dinner, everything looked pretty packed, so we sat at the noodle bar and watched the chefs make our noodles, spring rolls and pot stickers. It was a fine dinner, nothing spectacular, but good. Then we went to the top deck for the 80’s dance part at the Spice2o adult outdoor area. There are some friendly bartenders here that remember us from last night. After a few more drinks we hit the dance floor and danced til midnight. Dancing while we were sailing to the next port was a super time and for those keeping count, ended an 18 hour day. SO MUCH FUN… More updates coming… 8 am tour in the French Riviera tomorrow!
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