Sun, Sea and Cocktails

Livorno (aka Leghorn in Britain) is a port city on the west coast of Tuscany. It is known for its network of Venetian style canals running through the city, rich maritime history and Renaissance era fortifications.

Originally a small fishing town, Livorno was developed by the republic of Pisa to expand and protect its maritime interests, and was designed as an ‘ideal town’ during the Renaissance. It developed considerably from the mid 16th century and flourished as an important free port with intense commercial activity, becoming the main port of Tuscany. There are churches, villas, and some palaces in the city showing evidence of this prosperous time, however, much of the architecture is now modern and has been rebuilt according to the original plan after sustaining severe damage during World War II.

The city is not a seaside resort and therefore doesn’t attract crowds of tourists. However, with easy access to Pisa, Florence and other Tuscan towns, it is convenient as a stop off to explore the area, and there is a steady stream of ferries and cruise ships arriving in its modern harbour.

This did make meeting the requirements of our granddaughter more of a challenge. We began with a walk around the city.

There is a ‘beach’ close to the harbour, well, more of a scruffy, rocky area, but perfect for a swim, the water was shallow with a sandy bottom. The Duchess of Austria visited at the beginning of the 19th century and obtained permission to build a bathing complex here. The area is marked with a statue of La Bagnante (The bather).

Being on the sheltered dock in the middle of the city was very hot and we definitely needed to cool down. So we visited this beach full of locals several times during our stay here, and enjoyed an après-swim aperitivo.

There was definitely a fascination developing of looking out for, and watching the small fish. Unfortunately we couldn’t fulfil the desire to see a dolphin, but thankfully, Livorno does have an aquarium.

The ground floor had many large tanks filled with a range of species from the underwater world, including green turtles, Napoleon fish, zebra and blacktip sharks, lion fish, rays, seahorses as well as a family of jellyfish.

On the first floor was a world of insects, amphibians and reptiles. There were pipes running from an ant farm which weaved all around the room, through containers with plants. The occupants were an army of fascinating leaf-cutter ants marching back and forth carrying huge pieces of leaves twice their size (Unfortunately, I don’t appear to have a photo!).

The free dock here didn’t seem to be policed and there were no signs to indicate how long you can stay, so with a stiff breeze out at sea and still plenty of ice cream flavours to discover (and of course the odd cocktail), we stayed a few days.

A visit to an air conditioned museum is always a good way to escape the heat, so we went to explore the Museó Della Citta. Housed in an 18th century oil warehouse which, in its day, could hold 24,000 barrels of oil, now it represents Livorno’s evolution displaying how the city has transformed over the centuries. Much of this was explained through narrative and maps. There was also a gallery of illustrious men, and illustrious women, important to the development of the city.

A collection of contemporary art was displayed in the rooms of a deconsecrated 18th century church, with works dating from 1945 to today. The space was dominated by the recent work of Italian artist Francesca Chiala where lengths of painted fabrics were draped from the balconies of the elaborate church room.

We considered a trip to Florence, but being further inland, the temperatures were reported to be over 40°C, so instead we decided that a nice anchorage, with hopefully a little breeze, would be more comfortable. We untied our lines, left the port, waving godbye to the statue of ‘Madonna to the people’ as we left.

Having already investigated the island of Elba, we headed 40 nm south and anchored in Porto Azzurro, just in front of the pretty town where we knew we could meet all the requests of our VIP. It was a long journey, but learning to play the ukulele does take some time!

Being at anchor had the added benefit that we could swim from the boat, as confidence grew swimming in the deep water, the dinghy soon became a platform to jump from.

We went ashore leaving Ed and Fred at the very convenient dinghy dock, and explored the town. There is a pebble beach which is nice and clean. We spent more time under the water swimming here as it was very clear water and there were lots of different fish to look at, particularly around the rocks.

Pebbles rather than sand didn’t seem to be a problem as everyday a collection of ‘special stones’ accumulated onboard, all put to good use in various creative creations!

With plenty of gelato cafes and bars, we were always encouraged to go for ice creams and cocktails after a day at the beach, how could we refuse.

Mining has historically been big business on Elba so we visited a small reconstructed mine to see how it was done.

They took us on a small train into a mine and caves to discover fossils and crystals. There were some rather disturbing characters demonstrating the work and machinery involved.

Over the next couple of days the weather was due to change and more storms were on their way. We considered staying in the anchorage to ride it out but it was due to bring strong winds from all directions, so as we had novice crew on board, we left the anchorage and moved across to the marina in Piombino. We already knew that there were no entertainment facilities here but it was due to be raining anyway so we stayed on board, safely tied to a dock and sheltered from the storm. Lightening was all around us continually illuminating the night sky. There was plenty to keep us busy, baking cakes, making pizzas, played games, watched some films, did lots of crafts and looked for fish between the storms.

After two days, it all calmed down so we could leave, we looked at options of where to go next, but Porto Azzurro was such a hit, we were requested (ordered) to return.

We had a calm sail back to Elba and anchored back in the same spot at Porto Azzurro. We were glad that we had gone to the marina as we spoke to some friends who had stayed in the anchorage and it was pretty rough, many boats dragged anchor and some had sails ripped down.

We stayed another few days enjoying the sunshine in the calm anchorage at Porto Azzurro. Most of the time was spent at the beach, we also visited the town, and wandered around souvenir shops, bars, pizzerias and gelato cafes.

Time passed quickly and soon it was time to leave. There were some fairly strong winds forecast for late afternoon so we left the bay at first light, and headed back up the coast to Livorno, arriving on the dock before the wind had picked up too much.

Paul stayed onboard Ziggy while I escorted our Princess back to the UK.

We seemed to have passed the test as she is already planning her next visit!