Livorno

March 15, 2018 Jim Herrmann 1 Comment

As we looked for a strategy to explore more of Tuscany (we have both been to Florence several times and we stayed in Lucca for a month in 2016 just after we moved here), we decided to stay on the sea at Livorno and rent a car so we could drive into the hills to explore places that are somewhat difficult by train or bus. This turned out to be a good choice for us and we had a great time.

Livorno is a port city of approximately 160,000 inhabitants located on the west coast of Tuscany. When the port of Pisa silted up in the 13th century, Livorno (once known to the English as Leghorn) became the major port city for Tuscany. The Medici family had a major influence here and their traces can be seen everywhere.

At one point the city decided to install a series of canals and waterways and there is even one neighborhood that is referred to as “Venezia Nuova” (New Venice). We stayed in an apartment with a view of one of those canals and the Fortezza Nuova (a Medicean fortress that is now a park).

The Ever Changing View From our Apartment

I think this may have been my favorite view from any stay we have had here in Italy. It seemed that every time I looked out the window, it was different, but always a wonder to behold.

Morning

Evening

Sunset

The Various views of Livorno

We spent one day exploring Livorno and wondering around its streets, canals and the seaside plaza/walkway. It was a little cool, but the skies were beautiful and at this time of year nothing was over crowded. We had great food, great wine and a great time.

From the Fortezza toward our apartment

Always the laundry on a nice day

The Fortezza Nuova

From the Fortezza

Couldn’t resist

Beautiful houses

The plaza/walkway

The plaza/walkway with a beautiful lady

The Market

Full of all the fresh fish, meat, cheese, baked goods, fruits and vegetables you could want, this indoor market, with skylights to provide all of the illumination you need, was a delight to shop for our food during our stay in Livorno.

Quattro mori

Perhaps the most famous statue in Livorno, the Four Moors was commissioned by Cosimo II de’ Medici in the 17th century to commemorate the various victories of his father, Ferdinando I de’ Medici, over the Moors. Perhaps, like the monument to Christopher Columbus in Genova, with a bare breasted native american maiden sitting at his feet like a prize from the new world (see post on Genova), it may seem a little politically incorrect (Holly says that by today’s standards, it is horribly incorrect), but the bronze figures in chains , subjugated as they are, are magnificent pieces unto themselves.

Next up will be some views of the Tuscan hills.

Uncategorized

Alghero, Sardegna

March 11, 2018 Jim Herrmann 2 Comments

When we left Cagliari we did not immediately head north to Alghero. Since we had some time and a car under us, we decided to spend a few hours visiting some interesting places south of the city, the town of Pula and the ancient Roman port ruins at Nora. We had coffee in Pula at a great little cafe sitting in the warm sun and then got a personalized tour of the ruins of the small Roman port city of Nora by the onsite archaeologist, Valeria. The small Roman theater (couldn’t have seated more than 200) may have been the highlight, but having the insight of our own archaeologist was a treat.

The coffee shop in Pula

The coffee drinker in Pula

The colors of Pula

The old roman theater

The ruins of the ancient bath house

One of the mosaic floors

The ruins with a cistern

The tower

Our wonderful guide, Valeria

We then traveled north to Alghero on a very nice four lane highway through the city of Sassari and then down to the west coast of Sardegna at Alghero. We were both very taken with Alghero (accent on the “gher”). It is a quaint medieval port city and like most of the places we have visited, it has a history dating back too far to recount here. As with many of the port cities we have visited here in Italy, it suffered severe damage from Allied bombing during WW II. Most of it has been rebuilt, but does contain several monuments and plaques to people who perished during those events. It has an international airport just outside the city for those wishing to get here easily.

Walking along the sea wall that borders the “centro storico” (historic center) we met a man doing the same thing we were, strolling and taking pictures of the ever-changing evening sky. We struck up a conversation with Gianfranco and ended up getting a personal tour of the old city from a native.

Capo Caccia

Gianfranco with Holly

The daily market

We had thought of driving to the very exclusive northeast side of the island to Porto Cervo and Porto Rotondo, but decided the four hours of driving it would take for the round trip just to spend too much for lunch and coffee would be better spent closer to Alghero.

Sardegna is famous for a unique style of ancient stone structures called nuraghi. They date from somewhere between 2,700 – 4,500 years old and vary in size and the amount of fortification, but all have conical tower and were the center of social and spiritual life for the people who spent their days there. Some of the larger ones are also surrounded by defensive walls, although there is little evidence of them being used to fend off attacks. Some 7,000 of these sites have been discovered with theories that there were up to 10,000 of them. They dot the island seemingly everywhere you go. Like all ancient dwellings, I feel a sense of wonder about the people who lived, played, worked and died in these places. The style of these stone structures is unique to Sardegna and the population is still a bit of a mystery, with little knowledge other than these strange structures and the few artifacts that have been discovered at the sites.

Picture of the posted plan of the site

Next stop was the 3,600 – 6,000 year old Necropolis of Anghelu Ruju. Where again, because of the season, we were the only people there and were able to obtain a personal tour from the onsite custodian and archaeologist. Discovered by accident in 1903, it contained the remains and artifacts spanning over 2,000 years of use.

Our guide and I

Decorations inside

If we were to plan this trip again, we might have flown into one end of the island and out of the other. As it was we needed to drive back to Cagliari to catch our flight home. Rather than retracing our route through the middle of the island, we decided to take the road along the west coast of the island. We had the road nearly to ourselves and the wild scenic vistas were well worth the extra 30 minutes the route took.

Last week we stayed in Livorno and toured some of the hill cities of Tuscany by car and that will be the next post.

Uncategorized

Cagliari, Sardegna

March 3, 2018 Jim Herrmann Leave a comment

As our Facebook friends already know from some brief posts on that site, we spent last week in Sardegna. We started in the largest city, Cagliari, on the south end of the island and then drove to the northwest part of the island to Alghero. Sardegna is the second largest island in the Mediterranean Sea (just behind Sicily) and turned out to be one of the most beautiful places we have visited here.

Sardegna is also one of the world’s Blue Zones. Those are places where people live longer and supposedly happier lives and have the highest percentage of centenarians. Not sure how many 100 year olds we met, but we found the Sardegnians to be genuinely open, courteous and friendly. Everyone we met and spoke with greeted us with a warmth that we could all take lessons from.

Cagliari

When we arrived at the train station from the airport, which are both at sea level, we followed our Google Maps directions to our apartment and one of the first things we ran into was this:

The stairway to where our apartment was and it was quite a bit of work with our luggage.

That led us to the Castello district where we were staying. It is so named because it once held a Pisan castle that comprises most of the old city. Sitting on a rock outcropping above the city and the port, it affords magnificent views of the surrounding landscape and the port.