Well Tom has decided that he doesn’t want to take any more night trains. All the noise and motion keeps him awake and he doesn’t care for the close quarters of the sleeping cars.
We had a very short night – leaving Villach, Austria at midnight and arriving Florence, Italy shortly after 6:30 AM. We were able to board our connecting train to Livorno as soon as we arrived in Florence, and we left a half hour later. So far, so good.
Upon our arrival in Livorno we discovered no taxi stands, information booths, or tourist help desks at the station and so started walking, with luggage in tow, hoping to find something that would help us out. We ended up at a shopping mall where a helpful clerk called a taxi for us. He arrived in only a few minutes and brought us to the port where we went to check on departures to Corsica. Unfortunately, yesterday was the final day of multiple trips across to Corsica and today’s ferry left at 8:15. Had we arrived a day earlier, or a day later we could have taken the 1:45 ferry, but not today. Of course, things could be worse than being in Tuscany with a free week at our disposal, so we decided to get a hotel room here in Livorno. A woman at the ferry terminal suggested a hotel that was “a five minute walk” and she gave us directions.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t possible to exit the terminal at the convenient pedestrian entry point, so by the time we exited the terminal we had walked to far afield that the directions she gave us were pointless. After some more walking we found someone else to call a taxi. The taxi driver spoke no English – so we were even, since we couldn’t speak any Italian. He asked which hotel and we couldn’t communicate the answer – but just then we drove by a billboard of a hotel, so I told him “that one”. Fortunately, they had a room available (with a balcony overlooking the harbor and the sea – unfortunately, there is a building trying to obstruct our sea view). By the time we got to our room it was noon and we were so tired that we took naps.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t possible to exit the terminal at the convenient pedestrian entry point, so by the time we exited the terminal we had walked to far afield that the directions she gave us were pointless. After some more walking we found someone else to call a taxi. The taxi driver spoke no English – so we were even, since we couldn’t speak any Italian. He asked which hotel and we couldn’t communicate the answer – but just then we drove by a billboard of a hotel, so I told him “that one”. Fortunately, they had a room available (with a balcony overlooking the harbor and the sea – unfortunately, there is a building trying to obstruct our sea view). By the time we got to our room it was noon and we were so tired that we took naps.
We got to Livorno only to find that there is nothing at the train station! So we set off walking hoping to find something soon.
The room we wound up with overlooks the harbor and the old fort.
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