Port of Livorno

Carolina's Notes

Today we arrived in the port of Livorno, which basically gives you 3 options: Pisa, Florence, or Cinque Terre. Jimi and I have already spent some time in Florence and Pisa, but he has not been to Cinque Terre and I was last there 13 years ago so that was our choice. Today we were on our own with the Skellys going to Florence and the Gees undecided. I am thankful we were alone because I spilled gelato on my shirt and tomato on my pants but I have been waiting for John and Sue to spill food on themselves. I guess it serves me right.

Today was a gorgeous day to visit Cinque Terre and I have the farmers tan to prove it. We visited 3 of the 5 towns and passed the other 2 by boat. We walked on lovers lane; a portion of the path that connects 2 towns and was covered in locks to signify couples strong and unbroken love for each other. Jimi and I debated using our only lock, a very nice swiss army TSA approved lock and decided not to; hopefully our marriage will survive but we can be assured that the contents of our luggage will make it. The day was wonderful! We got back to the ship and rushed to change four our 7 pm dinner reservations. We were also on our own for dinner tonight and chose a place that has my favorite meal ever; chicken fajitas. No matter where or how I travel from Italy to Ireland, I always find a way to get chicken fajitas because they are delicious. However, I was very responsible and I only had one dessert! I don't expect that trend will continue.

Susan's Notes

John and I spent the day in Florence. I fell asleep on the hour bus ride there and only woke up when he poked me to show me the blockbuster. Unlike yesterday, our tour guide did an exceptionally good job. The only time she rushed us was to get to the museum to see Michaelangelo's David because we had 1045 am tickets. The statue was magnificent. The way he could take a piece of inferior stone and turn it into David signifies that he was way head of the sculptors of the era. We left David to go the duomo.

The history behind the building was fascinating but what was more fascinating is that they only stopped cars from driving around it one year ago. The side was black from car pollution. Speaking of drivers in Florence, we had a 5 minute lesson on how to cross the street. The drivers there get points for killing people. We were told to stand on the curb, make eye contact with the driver, put your foot out like you will begin walking, and if he stops then you can cross. They will drive over your feet if you are to close to the car. Fortunately we came out alive with all our body parts intact.

Lunch was wonderful. The restaurant was in the basement of an old building. The water glass held 4 ounces and the wine glass held half a bottle. Our motto was, when in Florence, do as the Florentines. The tiramisu was out of this world. We finished off our wine bottle and continued our walk. I met a man from Oakton, VA in the bathroom, the communal bagni (toilets).......We had a nice conversation about beer and baseball. We discussed that communal bathrooms concept at a baseball park would prevent the men to wait so long for the women. However he thought that while the men waited for the woman, they could get more beer. We went to a cute little candy store. Most of the things I could figure out what they were, but the nice lady behind the counter deciphered the rest to which I said, grazie.

Seeing as Jimi and Carolina had me go back to the bank for more Euros for gelato. John and I found a nice gelato store and had lemon gelato. Who would have known that the gelato cost more if you sit down at the table in the store? Forgetting this I sat down and John yelled at me so I quickly got up and left to avoid the squatter fee. Once again we ended the day in the casino. John is up $100 and I am down $25.

John's Notes

Today I’ll take the liberty to write for the entire Gee clan. It was simply a day of chillaxin’. Our ship docked this morning in Livorno with trips to both Florence and Pisa. Since yesterday was a fairly busy day and tomorrow we will be in Rome we took advantage of an empty ship got in a run, and grabbed a few empty pool chairs and listened to some live music. Doing absolutely nothing is something that we as a family are not accustomed to; we are always on the go. Zoe is eating ice cream and cookies with every meal and I feel like I have gained 10 pounds. She has also met new friends whose names she can’t pronounce and is having a blast, she’s now a world traveler. As for me this is all kind of surreal, I’m a homebody without a doubt and knowing that I am six hours ahead of our time and thousands ands thousands of miles away from home makes me love it even more. Although just as I use my running as a tool this trip is just the same. I feel that I will return home with a better understanding of who I am and a tighter bond with my family, just as expected.

Tomorrow should be fun; the entire family will get to spend over ten consecutive hours together while touring Rome. While I will channel my inner gladiator I’m sure we all will be channeling our inner mediator. So far this trip has been much more than I could expect, and I can’t wait for the rest of it…