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Livorno, Italy – Afternoon
After going to Pisa this morning I have just checked on Margaret, grabbed a quick lunch at La Veranda and hurried (not ran…Margaret doesn’t allow me to do that) down the ramp and jumped on the shuttle that runs very 30 minutes to town. It dropped us off right on the town square which was pretty interesting. Livorno, being on the coast, was bombed during WWII so many of the building are new and rather mundane. Not ugly, mind you, but just not how you pictured this part of the world. The good news is that many of the old walls and building remain…enough to make the old-town an interesting walk-a-bout.
One thing that I had no idea of is that the town was originally very similar to Venice. Like Pisa, there were canals instead of streets. But, unlike Pisa, where the river changed coarse and all the canals were eliminated and turned to roads, because Livorno is on the coast, many of the canals remain to this day. It adds some charm to the city for sure although it is no match for Venice.
I walked around town taking a few pictures and watching the locals hanging out on floating cafes on the canals, sipping on espressos on street-side cafes and then went to the 24 hour pharmacy (I give up, Word keeps replacing farmacia) to get the cough medicine. Unlike the US, they sell strong pharmaceuticals without prescription and the pharmacist actually gives you advice on what to get. “What kind of cough? Dry or with mucous”, etc. He handed me the strong stuff for a dry cough (I guessed), I handed him 8 Euro and was on my way back to catch the next shuttle.
Of course, I found out from Margaret that she didn’t think she had a dry cough but I knew that it would still help her sleep. And, it turned out to be the case although the drug in it made her have some strange dreams. Better that than no sleep at all I figure.
Back on the ship Margaret was up and feeling well enough to go out to dinner at Signature’s. Although we didn’t get Maria but a tall, very young French man (boy?) that was from a town nearby to Maria’s, we still had a very nice meal. His English was almost non-existent and Maria had spoiled us with her perfect French-accented English. We made an early night of it and drifted off to sleep hoping that Margaret would be well enough to go on our 4 hour bus ride in the morning to a nearby lake and some wine tasting.
