Tag: livorno

2022)

My brother had an early flight home, so we all got up at sparrowfart and drove to Pisa airport. We dropped him off under a golden sky, as the sun had only been peeping above the horizon for 20 or so minutes. As always with goodbyes at Pisa airport, we feel like we’re giving people a bit of the bum’s-rush as free parking in the drop-off carpark only lasts 10 minutes and God forbid if we have to spend a couple of quid on parking. The brain is a funny thing!

Anyway, we waved goodbye and had a think about what we could do for breakfast. I suggested Marina di Pisa, as we’d heard generally that it was nice. I drove there. I love to drive, especially on roads I’ve never been on before. We travelled to where looked sort of built up right next to a carpark by a marina, on the northern side of the town. Unfortunately, everywhere was still shut at that hour, and the carpark was barriered – and probably for boat-owners anyway. Thanks, Google! (In fairness, she doesn’t let us down often).

We found another pay-spot farther south, on a street surrounding a small green area. We got out and headed for the promenade. How rocky it all was; not what we were expecting. It turns out that the premium sandy beaches are much farther south, pretty much beyond the town. Still, the walk was pleasant, and refreshing.

We stopped off at a large kiosk-like place – Il Barrino – for a pastry and a cup of something hot (coffee for Niamh, hot chocolate for me), and we were hugely impressed by the cornetti we got there. The pistacchio cream was awesome!

We carried on our walk until the town began to disappear. There were people (with dogs – lots of dogs) out and about strolling and chatting, but the town itself was still quite quiet. It was the last day before tons of Italians returned to work, plus it was still super-early and a Sunday.

We turned back, and walked on the shadier side of the street, to see if we could get a good nose in at a couple of bars that were open. Hey, it’s gelato-time somewhere on Earth, am I right? Alas, no – no gelato in sight, but we got our steps in. Also, I earned a scouting merit badge by helping a little old lady cross the street. That was my Karma sorted for the year!

We got back to the car and discussed what we’d do for the rest of the morning. We had zero alternative plans, so I suggested we drive the coast all the way to Cecina, and from there turn back towards Volterra.

Being the chief photo-taker of us, it meant that no photos would be taken on the trip, unless we stopped off somewhere – which was likely given that we might have lunch, plus new places to explore on the way. We turned off tolled and motorway routes in Google and let rip! We headed south, and drove past tons of premiere lidi (pay-beaches) on the way – I guess this is where all the sandy beaches are in Marina di Pisa.

The sun was out much more strongly by now, and people and vehicles were beginning to mill about. I found myself having to be extra-vigilant on this drive, as people were walking across roads with little warning as they crossed to and from the beach and water-park entrances. Some roads were multi-laned and the Italians (bless them) seem to not know what an indicator is when it comes to navigating lanes and roundabouts. I had to be careful for sudden lane-switching too. Mildly stressful, but I still enjoyed the drive.

The coast is relatively densely populated, and in stretches it’s not uncommon for a town to pretty much merge into another. It wasn’t too long before we hit the busy town of Tirrenia. We drove through a large circular ‘square’, and almost stopped, because they had some sort of market or festival one. There were a lot of stalls and, if memory serves me correctly, a mini ferris wheel or other carnival rides set up. The place was thick with traffic and people, though, and I couldn’t see any signs of obvious parking, so we continued our journey farther south.

Tirrenia became Calambrone, which brought us to the northern outskirts of one of my favourite places to be: Livorno. Today, however, we wouldn’t be stopping – we would drive past it. I was curious as to the route that Google would take us through Livorno. Well… it took us not quite through, but around – clockwise. Livorno is a port town, and therefore is something of a distribution centre for many physical goods. We drove past oil and chemical refineries galore, warehouses and a few massive spaces where hundreds, if not thousands, of new cars were parked awaiting transport.

It was an… interesting part of the city, if not the most flattering – but every city has industry somewhere. We circled around the city, and were eventually spat out near the coastal route again, after a few adjustments. After a while the road closely followed the coast, with hints of towns here and there. Cars and scooters were parked on the side of the road for those people hitting the beaches. There weren’t as many as I’d seen before, given the time it was.

I wanted to stop off in one or two places, but we settled instead on stopping somewhere for lunch. As we approached Cecina, we went through the fabulous Castiglioncello, which we’d already been to a few year previously. I had planned to stop in Rosignano Solvay, as we hadn’t been there before, and I wanted to check out the famous white beaches. However, it wasn’t quite lunch yet and I was having difficulty finding a place to park. So, on we went – me, a little disappointed.

The next town up, Vada, was also somewhere we’d never been before. As soon as we’d driven in, I was determined we’d stop this time, as once again there were stalls everywhere. We slowed to a crawl and kept our eyes peeled for places to park. We found one – a quarter circle off a side street and got a space with little problem.

We walked up and down the main market street. It was wonderfully colourful in the sunshine, and unlike Volterra’s market, there was actually a stall selling fresh pasta. I wouldn’t mind a permanent shop like that in Volterra itself! Other than that, it was pretty much a standard market, but it’s always fun to walk around them. The best thing: the sounds: the cries of the hawkers, and the general buzz of the Italians as they request, bargain and pay.

We walked around the town a bit and found another part of the market in a gravelled town square, along with a church and a monument to Garibaldi. The day was quite hot by then, and we were also a little on the hungry side. Niamh, being a fan of all things littoral (admittedly, I love the coast too), we decided to forego the chance of excellence in favour of location.

Vada doesn’t have an old-town, per se (like most Italian towns directly on the coast), but we wandered past an old fortress tower, which seemed to be the last thing around that was more than a century old. We also bypassed a gelateria I wanted to try later!

Anyway, we got to the beach, but the call of our tummies was louder than the roar of the sea. We had a choice of two places by strand entrace. We went to the one that scored a little highly on Google. Due to my theory on promenade-based restaurants, I lowered my expectations and I guess they were met. Niamh was a bit disappointed with her seafood pasta, and I thought my pappardelle al cinghiale was passable. As always, though, the staff were lovely. Although it looks empty in the photo below, a group of young men who obviously knew the waitress joined nearby and added a bit of buzz about the place.

Pasta dish with cheese with fish? Rarely a good combo! But not bad as a rhyme.

We briefly took to the strand shortly after lunch. It was cute and small, but large enough for a dad to play frisbee with his young son. It had golden sand too, which is always a bonus.

You can watch a video of our day here:

After we’d wandered about the beach, we headed back to the car, via the gelateria we saw earlier. Except that despite the weather, it was still closed. It looked like there was movement in it, but it was past its opening hour on Google. Rather than wait around, we went to another gelateria/bar on the other side of the square (Bar Gelateria Firenze). Its scores weren’t as high, but it was open!

We grabbed our tubs of selected flavours, and camped in one of the covered tables outside. The gelato was lovely, but this moment was also a bit of a highlight for me too. It was just so chill, people-watching and listening to a cool Italian blues playlist. I Shazam’d one of the songs (D. Man – Ain’t Enough Whiskey – fab and moody guitar work) and it’s on my phone. We hung around for just a little while after, before recommencing our journey home.

Rather than skirting directly around Cecina, we instead to take a backroad route for the rest of the way, only we didn’t quite manage it. In fact, maybe 20 minutes in I recognised some of the backroads we took leaving from Riparbella a couple of days ealier.

Side Note: Riparbella. I had completely forgotten we drove to Riparbella the same day we explored Casale Marittimo with my brother. I’d always seen it from afar, about three quarters of the way up a hillside, but I’d never been there. Anyway, we trundled up and found a carpark, but it was a bit outside the town, so we got back in, drove up the ferocious slope and into town. We found the commmunal free carpark, but had to squeeze between buildings to get to it. It snaked in single file down a couple of levels, and I was mildly traumatised getting the spot, but grabbed one and had to fight may way through a little undergrowth, as the driver, getting out of the car. The carpark looks like it was being ugraded at the time, so perhaps it’s in better shape now.

I cannot explain why, but I didn’t take any photos. That is not a reflection of Riparbella. The centre part of the old town is perfectly nice and peaceful. We saw a number of cyclists tackle the roads, and I think it’s an ideal stop along a tough route, to be possibly only attempted by experienced/fit practitioners. I remember some of us needed a bathroom, and we had seen an opened bar at a piazzetta (around here). The owner was sitting at a table outside, but we opted for a table inside and were afforded the blessed relief of some well-working air-conditioning – a real rarity in Tuscany!

While we took turns using the facilities, we grabbed some drinks and snacks and enjoyed a 20 or so minutes in the place – and enjoyed a little slice of Tuscan small-town life, as a woman brought a couple of her kids in and the bar-owner treated them to some sweets.

On the way back from Riparbella, I decided to head farther up the hill, to see where else we could explore. Once out of town, the roads became quite narrow – very narrow, in fact, but we enjoyed looking out for the well-groomed tenute along the route. I was tempted to call into one or two to try their wines, but home was calling.

Anyway, back to the ‘present’. We found ourselves back on one of these back-roads, and again we hadn’t travelled as far as I thought, coming out maybe only 15 minutes past Cecina, and back on the main road (the SS68).

We chilled for a while, before heading out to a few places to try their aperitivi.

We ended up camping at the Enjoy Cafè Bar Sportivo – a jazzband was playing right in our faces, but they were a tight combo. The nibbles were nicer than the drinks, but we were happy enough. Indicentally, this place has upped its gelato game too!

Finally, after the slight disappointment that was lunch, we over-compensated by once again heading to Del Duca for dinner. Edit: It was because it was our anniversary! lol. Huge irony that I forgot that! Anyway, Del Duca it never disappoints. At the time of writing this, they have since sold the establishment on, and we have yet to try the fare there now. We’re returning in mid March, and will do just that!

As always, we enjoyed the food tremendously and had a little digestivo afterwards. They’re so good at alleviating that full-belly feeling. And we must have been full – where are the desserts?!

Back to the apartment for chilling and bed.

I hope you enjoyed the read – please let me know what you think in the comments below.

The Livorno Foodmarket (29/08/2022)

My brother likes to hike, so that day we started from the apartment (well, duh!), and went to the main viewpoint at Piazza Martiri della Libertà, and continued downhill all the way to the bus parking station.

Via Porta all’Arco – better in the afternoon

We went back uphill a little to Viale dei Filosofi and circumnavigated along the walls as far as the Docciola free carpark. This was about halfway around. Normally we’d do the full circuit, but we had a busy day ahead of us, so to compensate, we took the less severe stairway at Docciola!

I was pretty huffy by the end of that, but we carried on back towards Piazza Settembre XX and down Gramsci and home again. Not a bad morning’s walk, when taking all the hills into account.

Today, we were going to explore a couple of the main attractions in Livorno we had never fully experienced before: the food market (aka Mercato Centrale) and the fortress. We had been to Livorno on a Sunday back in May, but the market was closed. It’s open all other in the morning ’til about 14:30. We drove a slightly different route, setting Mrs. Google to avoid both tolls and motorways – maybe only 10 km of it was different – we still had to head towards Cecina and bypass it. Still it’s always nice to drive in new areas, and we saw a couple of hilltop towns we hadn’t seen before (we didn’t stop – tight schedule!).

We parked in Parcheggio Moderno. I honestly didn’t think there would be space on a market day, but there were still a good number of spots left. And best of all – it’s just a couple of blocks north of the market. We walked (duh!) from the carpark to the market. What surprised me was that outside the food market building was another market; a more traditional town market. And it was huge. I think that it too is open every morning (exlcuding Sundays). You won’t see as many photos as you might have thought you’d see, as I was filming at the time. You can find the video of our trip to Livorno below.

Now, depending on the entrance you take, you might be hit with a strong fishy smell, but you’ll soon get used to it – and it’s not all over the stalls – mostly in one section.

Not going to lie – it was a bit smelly in this section – but if you love seafood, you’re in for a treat.

The central stalls in the fish market area were empty, so I am assuming they operate earlier in the morning. The other sections inside were for fruit, meats, and a few were for breads and pastries. There were even one or two packed alimentari and household goods stalls. We stopped to look and smell at a great many, but only really bought some pastries – mini cannoli. Sadly, these were nothing to write home about – but the stall was lovely to look at. The Italians really do make good with whatever sales space they’re given, especially indoors.

When we’d finished exploring and filming there, we walked to the hippodrome-shaped Piazza della Republica, and from there to the mini-canal system around the fortress. We entered the fortress at the south-western corner, thinking it might be some sort of museum, but it turns out to be a pretty public space. There was a bar on the way in, and a few (closed) food stalls were clustered about, waiting for accompanying food and music festival that were advertised on posters about the place. There was a kids play area beside a short leafy pathway where you could amble along, or park yourself on a bench and watch the world go by.

At the northern end, there is another space by the surrounding wall, which gives a lovely evelated view of the surrounding canal, bridges and colourful buildings. Boats occasionally whizz past, or carefully steer back towards their berthing. A fabulous and peaceful space to chill a while – with plenty of shading from the August sun under its trees.

Now hungry, we walked towards the sea, and along the canals in an effort to find somewhere to have a little bit of lunch. I was breaking one of my own rules (about sacrificing cost and quality of food for a nice view), but maybe me (and Google) would be proved wrong.

We weren’t. They were friendly enough at L’Ancora, but Niamh’s and my fried fish didn’t quite live up to the Livorno promise. My brother, on the other hand, is a reasonably conservative eater and his pasta al ragu was the best of the dishes by a considerable way. As for the compensating view? Well, I got the rough end of the stick… I was looking at dockside trashcans and dumpsters, but Niamh and my brother had this instead.

It reminded me of the contrast that is Livorno: grit and glam. I didn’t take a photo of my view!

When lunch was over, we contemplated heading towards the seaside promenade to show my brother the amazing Terrazza Mascagni, and the aquarium there. We looked at it on the map, but it was a 3km round-walk in little shade, and we just didn’t have the appetite. We *did* however have an appetite for gelato, and once again stopped at L’orizzante for some tasty frozen deliciousness.

And so, home again. Livorno has a bunch of things to see, and that market is right up there with them. Don’t overlook this fun city!

Here’s the video of our trip:

We screen-watched and chilled a while back at the apartment, before building up an appetite to go to Terre di Mezzo for our evening meal. We had pasta and followed that up with dessert. My brother had his expensive beer, making us remember the last time he’d been here and was happy to pay extortionate prices for craft beer (they weren’t extortionate – we misunderstood the pricing!).

Special… I think it was pancetta with hazelhuts

Thanks for reading. Please leave a like and a comment or question. I’d love to hear from you.

A Trip to Livorno, Volterra Comics and Fantasy Day 2 (22/05/2022)

No walk today either… sorry!

We thought we had seen most of what the Volterra Comics and Fantasy had to offer on the first day. We were only a little wrong – we had the awards ceremony and further costumes to come – more on that later.

We had been intrigued by Livorno during our first visit there a couple of years ago, and wanted to go back to at least experience the food market. I remembered the humidity then, and my promise to wear shorts next time, but wussed-out over sun-cream maintenanced and went fully-trousered. This time parked in the Parcheggio Moderno, just a couple of blocks north of the market. We missed a couple of turns in the middle of town, but Livorno is strangely forgiving, and we just had an extra spin around a few blocks and the hippodrome-shaped Piazza della Repubblica. Not much fuss, only a little muss! It’s a storeyed car-park, and so the vehicle would be shaded. We found a spot quite handily just one floor up. Did I mention this was a Sunday?

Anyway, we got out of the car, and headed immediately towards the market. Again, did I mention this was a Sunday? Of course it was closed. Shrugging, as we weren’t hugely surprised, we instead went on an explore of the city. I have to say, Livorno is one of the most underrated cities in Tuscany. Yes, it has an air of dirt of grit about it, but it is also quite lovely in places and it is a genuine city – you are looking at Tuscans and work and play there. While the tourist count is increasing (lots of UK people, strangely), it’s still quite uncluttered. I think we are going to make it a must-visit for most of our stays in Tuscany.

I love Livorno’s ‘Venetian’ quarter – we hadn’t seen it the first time around, so the return trip had already paid us in gold, with or without the market. We skipped the fortezza, not knowing it could be entered. As we had left around the 11:00 mark, we had become a little hungry. We were still on our Asian food kick, and so looked out for whatever Chinese/Japanese/Thai food place we could find.

Google (eventually) led us to ZEN Livorno. We settled in and had what turned out to be pretty decend food.

What wasn’t photographed was some tasty (to us, we hadn’t had it before, but had seen YouTubers rave about it) okonomiyaki – a sort of omlette made with cabbage, flour and eggs. There might have been meat in this one; I can’t remember – but I do remember the dancing fish-flakes. It was all tasty enough and we left satisfied. I am still (even at the time of writing this – Sept 14th, 2022) on my quest to find a decent Cantonese-style food – but after having tried places in Florence, Siena, Poggibonsi, Colle di Val d’Elsa, Cecina, Pontedera and Empoli. We have drawn the conclusion that Cantonese food here is at very best about equivalent to your average takeaway (with far fewer choices of dish), at worst Godawful. But they do dumplings reasonably well (sold as ‘ravioli’ on their menus). If you know of any good Cantonese restaurants in Tuscany, or north Lazio/west Umbria please let us know! There could be a virtual cookie in it for you! 🙂

Anyway, food done satisfactorily, we continued our walk about the town. It wasn’t insufferably hot, so my choice of trouserware was adequate for the day!

The food an ambience looked good at this restuarant – we vowed we’d try it next time we’re back

We stopped off at a gelateria and sat down to eat our bounty. Literally! I had bounty gelato. It was nice enough. We then headed back to the car and high-tailed it back to Volterra. We decided to head back on a more scenic route, when we got closer to Volterra.

It was still remarkably green in May. Amazing to think how it changes in the hotter months!

After a brief chill at the apartment, we headed back out to see what the cosplayers were up to that afternoon. There were definitely some cool costumes on display. There was a guy there dressed as Sean Connery as Indiana Jones’ dad in The Last Crusade. He blew me away… looked so much like him… even had the same dimples when he smiled.

Mrs. Doubtfire did the dance routine later on in the day – very funny.

The talent spotting continued. We hit up Bar Priori for an aperitivo while we people-watched.

Later on we watched the awards ceremony. I didn’t know who most were dressing up as, but Wolverine was my standout, as he sprinted up to the stage to get his award. He had fabulous spirit, and looked pretty damn good too.

After the weekend we had been told by someone living in the town that it wasn’t nearly as well-attended as in previous years. That could have been down it being held 3 weeks or so earlier than usual, or that it was just post-pandemic – who can say? I hope it picks up again next year.

I have a youtube video of some of the festival down below. Take a look!

Later on in the day, I had a walk about to check out the sunset and grabbed a burger from L’Hamburgheria and ate it whole!

It was yummy enough! A little side of chicken bites

Screenwatching and bed! Not exactly detail-filled, but we enjoyed ourselves!

The Acquarium in Livorno – 11/08/2020

Warning: this post is photo-heavy!

In an attempt to (a) fit in like a local, and (b) reduce the effort I have to make to maintain sunblocker on my person, I tend to wear long trouser/jeans in almost any temperature, unless I know I’ll end up spending most of the day in high heat.

I took a look at the temperatures I had been experiencing in Volterra, and the morning we decided to go to the acquarium in Livorno, I compared them to the weather there. A few degrees cooler on the coast today – easy-peasy!

We hopped in the car, and Niamh drove at first to near the outskirts of Cecina, before taking the carriageway north to Livorno. Towards the end, the road lanes reduced to one each side, and hugged the coast a bit more. My God there were tons of people attending beaches. In some cases, cars and scooters lined the roads for kilometers at a time. It was August alright – Italians on holiday everywhere! Some of the scenery along the coast was nice. I couldn’t take shots, as I was the navigator for the journey, and was glued to my phone.

We drove around the outskirts of town, and found our way to the acquarium carpark. There was a queue to get it. Not having sufficient patience, we motored instead to a carpark about 600 meters north, and parked handily enough – albeit in an exposed spot. The car would be warm when we got back, but so what?

I got out.

And I was hit with what I could only describe was something to the wall of steam you generate in a shower. I had neglected the check the humidity. It was around the 85-85% mark, versus Volterra’s mid 40’s. Ok, it’s not quite Florida or Thailand, but it didn’t take long to discover that I had made a cruel mistake by wearing jeans. Thankfully my anxiety wasn’t too bad on the day, or such oppressive heat would have exacerbated it.

I only paused a couple of times to take snaps on the way back to the acquarium. There was a little nervousness from the pair of us, as we were unsure from the website as to whether or not we had to book tickets in advance due to the Covid situation.

We got to the acquarium and we were able to get tickets just by queueing. They were only letting so many people in the building to keep people social distancing as best as possible. Everyone had to mask up – never fun when you’re anxious, but that’s what mindfulness tools are for.

We only had to wait 15-20 minutes and we were in and looking. Generally, people were waiting for sections to be free of people before moving on, so it sort of led to a giant queue going around the facility. I say ‘sort of’, because of course everyone lost their patience and moved on and mingled anyway. Humans gotta human.

We took a monstrous number of snaps.

One of the other reasons I wanted to visit Livorno was right next to the acquarium: Piazza Mascagni – a huge, checker-boarded promenade along the shorefront.

We first got to see it from a terrace a couple of floors up within the acquarium building.

We went back in, and had visited an exhibition of lizards and insects within the acquarium building. This was a nice little surprise addition.

And after we left the acquarium, on our hunt for food, we walked along Piazza Mascagni. It’s a fabulous little attraction, if a little dizzying at times to look down upon while you’re walking!

An unwanted side-feature was the how far we had to walk to find we couldn’t find any halfway decent restaurants ready to accept us as walk-ins. We were baking by now and were eventually happy to walk back and grab one of the last tables in one of the more touristy places near the promenade. I had a breaded escallop with fries, which hit the spot. Niamh was less than happy with her fritto misto, unfortunately.

Once done, we headed back in the oppressive heat and humidity to the car, scorched our bums on the seat and set off for home. It was a fun day, but next time Livorno: shorts! Apologies in advance. I took one shot on the way back to the car, and one on the drive home.

That evening, we headed out to Il Sacco Fiorentino for dinner. They do the nicest fries I’ve had so far in Volterra. I think my stomach was at me, so I just had grilled veggies as a starter and then pasta with some sort of seafood. I wasn’t mad about it and only had about half of it (a very rare event for me). Niamh, on the other hand, had a lovely stew of wild boar and black olives, along with a side of tried and trusted fries.