Our next stop in Italy was Livorno, a city of approximately 150,000 in Tuscany on the Ligurian Sea, which is north of Corsica where many (including me) may have thought it to be the northern part of the Mediterranean but is actually a different sea.
We stayed in Livorno from just before Easter week to just after, because it is less touristy than many other places in the region and all of the touristy places are generally jam-packed during Easter week due to kids in Italy being off school.
Livorno translates as “leghorn” in English, and the white chickens that are raised commercially in North America were a breed known as the Leghorn, imported from Livorno, with the first arriving in 1828. Ironically, those chickens were introduced from the United States to Britain in 1870.
It was rainy and cool most of the time we were in Livorno. We made the best of it; we did live in the Seattle area for 12 years after all, and the city actually had a very similar feel (although it is much smaller).
There were three highlights of our time in Livorno:
- The Mercato Centrale (central market) – One of the highlights of our current travels is shopping in local markets and cooking our own food with what we find. We made four trips to the Mercato Centrale.
- The first was on a Saturday; it was crowded, and we were somewhat intimidated because we don’t speak Italian. On that trip we bought some produce, tea (which turned out to be outdated) and some cheese and sausage and left.
- On the 2nd trip, we discovered our favorite bakery, bought some candied ginger and dates, and bought more produce. It was less crowded, and we were starting to get more comfortable.
- The 3rd trip was our most extensive. We returned to our favorite bakery, date and produce stores. We also went to an egg store (yes, a store that only sells individual eggs), a pasta store (only pasta), a place with cured meets for prosciutto (very thinly sliced age ham), and a “vino sfuso,” which is a place where they refill bottles of wine from vats. We enjoyed visiting with all of the vendors, who spoke a little English (or not) but were happy to serve us regardless and seemed happy that we were there.
- The 4th trip was on a weekend again and only for a few things since it was near the end of our stay, but we enjoyed it thoroughly.
- The seafront walk – Livorno has the largest checkerboard tile walkway in the world! I am not sure who tracks or measures such things, but I will assume my guidebook is accurate in that regard. It is along one portion of the seafront, and we enjoyed taking a brisk walk along it a few times during our stay.
- Meeting friends for lunch – friends from last year’s world cruise, Kevin and Heather, were on the world cruise again this year, which had a stop in Livorno that happened to coincide with our time there. We met for lunch and had an enjoyable non-stop talking visit. We were too busy talking to take pictures. We hope to cross paths again in our travels in the future. As of now we are all planning to be in Asia next year, so it could be a possibility.
We also took other walks around Livorno during our time there, in the “new Venice” neighborhood (so named because Venetian workers were recruited to build similar canals in that area), and along the portion of the seafront closer to the many ferries and cruise ship docks.
We also visited the city museum one day, a small museum with a comprehensive overview of the city’s history from the Neolithic age through post-World War II rebuilding and politics.
