Livorno Travel Guide

We rented a lovely old villa just north of the city and used that as a base to explore the area.  The villa had views of the ocean and the countryside.  It was rather small, only about 1200 sq feet, but very clean and fully stocked.  (We asked ahead if the refridgerator could be stocked and they said "yes" for a price.  We preferred that to having to scrounge for food our first day).  The ocean is breath taking.  Each morning we had breakfast on the terrace overlooking the sea.  When we got back at the end of each day, we had dinner out there.  Since we were close to the city, we rode the bikes that came with the villa into Livorno.  A very interesting experience if you have never ridden a bike in Italy.  (Make sure you have your St Christopher coin with you). Once we saw that we were going through the food that had been provided, we did find several shops that had what we wanted.  There are "grocery" stores, but that's not why we came.  We can go to a "grocery" store back home.  We went to the butcher; the baker; the pasterie; the fruit and vegitable market etc.  There are several wonderful wine shops and let's not forget the CHEESE!!!! It's a good thing we had those bikes, otherwise we would have been waddeling around the countryside like a couple of bloated oxen. Overall, it was a wonderful trip and we have booked the villa for next summer.

Livorno - the birthplace of the leftist movement in Italy. Large sea port with ferries to Corsica and Sardinia and cruise ships docking and decanting tourists for Pisa and Florence- a bustling seafront with all the usual attractions.