Livorno Travel Forum

Ok, so a stop in a hillside Tuscan village sounds like it is out of the question simply due to lack of time. Would you recommend renting a car in Livorno, driving to Florence (3 hours there), heading to Lucca (1 hour?), Pisa (30 minutes?) and then heading back to the ship? Or, can it also be done by train? Livorno to Florence to Lucca to Pisa to Livorno? I would like to see these three places if possible.

look - if you want to do italy do italy

don't expect to be able to do italy in the minuscule amount of time a cruise ship docking in livorno allows you

i agree - you are trying to do too much in too little time. suggest you train to Pisa and Lucca, which will allow you to visit the field of miracles and enjoy the lovely city of Lucca rather than running like a chicken without a head.

italy is a whole other mind set - it is not always easy - and it doesn't bend to your imperative

why i love it so much

A person, to be honest with you, is supposed to enjoy his or her hol, not run around like a mad thing trying to cram in as much as possible and ending up a) exhausted b) stressed and c) probably seeing less because of a and b!

If you rent a car you'll still have to allow time for the paperwork side, and for navigation, and for finding somewhere to park (you can't park in central Florence, for example).

http://www.trenitalia.com/en/index.html, as before.

Livorno to Pisa is about 15 minutes by train (you probably won't have finshed the car paperwork by then). But I'd go to Florence first, and then work backwards. Actually that's a lie. I'd just go to Florence, or to Pisa and (possibly, depending on times) Lucca. I wouldn't try to do all three in one day.

Train journey times:

Livorno to Florence: around an hour and a half.

Florence back to Pisa: about an hour and a bit.

Pisa to Lucca: about 25 minutes.

Pisa to Livorno: about 15 minutes.

Of course, you have to add walking time to/from the stations (the Field of Miracles is about 15 minutes walk from Pisa Centrale, the Duomo about 10 minutes from S. M. Novella in Florence).

As it stands (and without adding in waiting time for connections) nearly 5 hours of your day will be taken up with travel. This will be much the same if you hire a car and drive, if not more so (navigating, congestion, finding somewhere to park....).

You haven't mentioned any tours the cruise offers. They might not be much more expensive than hiring a car, and at least you'd be certain that the ship would wait for you!

It would help us with our feasibility studies if you could let us know how much time ashore you will actually have. :-)

oh i did this excellent reply about canadians who missed their flight home from genoa because it was windy so the trucks arriving at the port backed up and the city btraffic went into gridlock - and LO they mkissed their plane home

but my excellent reply vanished

oh i did this excellent reply about canadians who missed their flight home from genoa because it was windy so the trucks arriving at the port backed up and the city btraffic went into gridlock - and LO they mkissed their plane home

but my excellent reply vanished

and they had been in bogliasco (just south of genoa) for a month and pleaded for an earlier taxi

but were laughed out of town by locals

If ever I were to take a cruise (which is one of the unlikeliest things I can think of) I would make very, very sure that any excursions I took were either a) cruise-organised (I know they are expensive but they cost much less than an onward flight) or b) well within feasible time limits to allow for all possible eventualities (and there are lots of those in Italy).

particularly if i don't have my passport about my person and the next stop is in a foreign country

oh mercy mercy

frankly i am sick of these cruises with their one stop in Rome (cIVITEVECHIA lol) and Livorno

and i love Livorno

me i would jump off the ship and stroll around a bit

so??? I missed Lucca and Pisa and .........

I caught Livorno - Modigliani was born here

Venice2009, we are not being deliberately obstructive here. It is not as easy as you seem to think it is to get a car and nip around and see lots of places in a short time (same goes for the UK). 'Nipping around' is not something which tends to happen much in Italian towns/cities (unless you are on a scooter).

Have a look at some of the VT pages, and the tourist information sites, to see what each port of call/town nearby has to offer. Then think about what you really, really must see.

if he wants deliberately obstructive he should try ordering a taxi to the genoa airport half an hour earlier than the locals think is necessary

can i mention the sciopero word?

You can, but I suspect I'll have to define it:

'Lo Sciopero (plural scioperi) is a strike or temporary work stoppage. A sciopero can be national or local and can affect only one sector or many. The most common strikes are local, usually lasting from 4 hours to 1 day.'

it can happen at any time, any where

you know it because you are waiting a suspiciously long time - then the cellulare start ringing and people start wandering off - and cars start stopping for strangers - and the foreign tourists have noticed nothing and are still standing waiting for the tram - or whatever

Anyway, if i can tell my opinion,

1) rent a car
2) drop Florence and do Pisa and Lucca: both with no particular problem in parking;
3) leave for the coming back 1 hour before the stric necessary time.

Yes, trains are fast, but:
1) you have to wait for them.
2) the station in Livorno is far from the citycenter, and problably even more fron the docks-

Ciao!
Francesco

Agree.....we suggested either dropping Florence or focusing on it entirely bfore, didn't we?.

Makes sense to me, though I'd rather take the train than have the hassle of hiring a car/driving, personally.

i would rather not set foot on a cruise ship meself - they seem to be a nightmare

and i would rather the cruise ships stopped dropping people off in civitavecchia and livorno

i understand cruise ships stop in savona a lot these days

it was explained to me that savona has a big piece of flat land spreading out from the port so it doesn't have the risk of clogging up like genoa -

and is not a long way from what people want to see like civitavecchia and livorno - so maybe the trips ashore are cheaper

i know a lot of cruise ships stop in savona - i met some chappies from the states in genova about to fly home and we never get queries in the savona forum

why!!!!!!!!!!

I agreed with this a long time up the thread but preferred train because, unless the roads have been widened and improved, the main street up into Lucca was a traffic nightmare with lots of signals that all seemed to be red.

After reading all the doomsayers take on this, I have to laugh. Renting a car in Livorno, at the port is easy. Getting to Florence is easy driving, one hour to maximum of 1 1/2 hours, 72 miles, unless you want to taste the countryside on the way. Lucca is before Pisa if you go to Florence and is about 45 minutes, 43 miles from Florence. Lucca to Pisa is about 30 minutes, 23 miles. Pisa to Livorno port is about 25 minutes away, about 25 miles. I will agree on the fact that doing Florence as well is a bit much to enjoy, so relax and stay with the Pisa and Lucca drive. BTW. I have taken over 27 cruises and try to rent a car in most locations. If I really enjoy an area, I return one day, some year, and go by car or stay in the city for days. Cruises are similar to buses, you just get to unpack once by cruising. A day spent somewhere you never have been to before and may never go back to see, is worth the cruise alone. Smooth sailing to all of you that haven't been and to those that have sailed, I trust you enjoyed the cruise and the destinations. To those that poo-poo sailing, well, I don't like broccoli. To each his own, thank G-d.