A Tuscan Misadventure

The title of this post is a bit of an exaggeration, even though there were a few annoyances on our trip from Livorno to Pisa and back. Let's get those out of the way quickly:

1. We wanted to go to Lucca but the driver said there wasn't time. (He was probably right.)

2. There was a brief but very hard rainstorm while we were in the very striking archeological museum in Pisa, which would have been OK except that hordes of tourists took refuge in the museum lobby and we had to elbow our way out.

3. After returning from Pisa, we were having a nice lunch in Livorno when we were importuned by a panhandler who was polite at first but grew increasingly aggressive. It was annoying but the staff seemed not to care. We encountered the same fellow an hour later while we waited for the bus.

Ah, well, these things happen. We still enjoyed our brief visit. Some highlights:

Yes, the famous tower still leans and still attracts people who insist on posing as if they are (a) preventing it from falling or (b) pushing it over or (c) about to be crushed by it. It was kind of fun watching them jockey for position. We chose to go into the cathedral and the adjacent baptistry, which are worth a visit even without the draw of the leaning tower. The ceiling of the cathedral is spectacular.

The covered market in Livorno was an unexpected pleasure. Marco, the driver, dropped us off there to kill some time while he made a few contacts to find someplace to get pizza for lunch. The problem is that most restaurants don't serve pizza until much later. The locals don't eat pizza for lunch and it takes a few hours just to get the wood-fired or coal-fired ovens up to cooking temperature. That's OK. Anyway, the market was lively and fun and we bought some treats to take home.

We did eat lunch on the patio of a nice restaurant called Quattro Mori , named for a monument that stands across the street. The monument shows four African men in chains and a member of the Medici family freeing them. It commemorates the declaration by the ruling Medicis that slavery would be banned. The Tuscans are justly proud of that heritage.