Lucca and Pisa

Time to catch up on this blog - our last port was Livorno, Italy.  We rent a car at this port too for our trip to Lucca and Pisa.  The rental car desk was right outside the ship as we docked.  The clerk had our paperwork all ready and she gave us some excellent maps to drive to Lucca and Pisa. 

Off we went.  The drive to Lucca was actually pretty short and we found a spot in a lot not far from one of the gates to the walled city.  Lucca was very big!  Much bigger than we thought it would be.  We walked throughout all the little roads and saw the lovely Church of San frediano founded in the 6th century.  As with other stops there were certainly no lack of high-end stores in the area.  We wandered around until the crowds (it was Saturday) were so heavy we decided to move on to Pisa.

In Pisa we were really lucky and found a parking lot with a space right across from the area with the Leaning Tower and the Duomo.  I can't believe it's been 30 years since  I had last been in Pisa!  Oh my gosh.  We walked around Campo dei Miracoli (Field of Miracles) where the Leaning Tower (Romanesque Campanile) was standing.  It was begun in 1173 by Bonanno Pisano and wasn't finished for nearly 200 years.  It began to tilt as soon as the third level was completed becuse the settling sub-soil was unable to withstand the tower's weight.  We didn't climb to the top - come to think of it I didn't climb to the top 30 years ago either!  We ate some lunch in a restaurant with a pretty courtyard and we were lucky to just beat all of the crowd.  The Cathedral of St. Maria Assunta was beautiful.  It was said to have determined the victory over Palermo in 1062.   The area was very bright with all the white marble and it was dazzeling in the sun.  Unfortunately our time was short so even though we spent at least a couple of hours here, we felt we didn't see everything.

Back to Livorno.  We took a different route back that allowed us to see some of the rolling hills and country side of Tuscany.  It was a pretty drive.  We followed the excellent directions back to the right port gate, turned our car in with no problem and walked right on to the ship.  How easy and nice for our last port!