54 Days at Sea — April 11, Livorno and Pisa

I’m going to cheat a little on today’s article, and I’ll explain that in a moment.

MS Prinsendam left Saint-Tropez on April 10 and sailed into Livorno, Italy the following morning. From Livorno you have two options for touring. One is a one and a half hour drive east to Florence, and the other is Pisa some fifteen minutes to the north of Livorno.

We chose neither that day because of bad weather. So, how am I posting photos of Pisa this week? That’s the cheat. These are from another trip we took to Pisa entirely, but I’m throwing them in with this 54 Days at Sea series.

As you can see from the above images of Livorno, we arrived fairly early in the morning. There’s also not a lot to see on the sail into port. If you cruise into this port, definitely hit either Florence or Pisa. In Pisa you’ll most assuredly get out to Piazza dei Miracoli (Square of Miracles, formerly Cathedral Square), where you’ll find the Pisa Cathedral (completed 1092), the Pisa Baptistry (completed 1363), and, of course, the Pisa Tower, more popularly known as the ‘Leaning Tower of Pisa‘ (completed 1372).

These three impressive structures make the plaza a must for photographers. Here are Ursula and me making the obligatory tourist pose in front of the Leaning Tower:

As much as the Leaning Tower features most prominently in tourist slide shows and albums, the Pisa Cathedral is at least as spectacular:

But getting back to the Leaning Tower, which serves as the campanile for the cathedral, look for unique perspectives you don’t often see: