Livorno, Italy

Since I only took a few pictures today I thought I would also share this website of pictures:
http://www.livornonow.com/image

First, I took this photo at the train station in Pisa - Seymour waiting for the train - so little!




I am at the Albergo Houston owned by a woman from the USA and her Italian husband. This is a small family-run place and cost 40 euro/night. I am their first guest from the airbnb website. Here is my room:





Notice the fan!! I have been using it non-stop. There is also a little TV that I haven't tried yet, but I think it only gets Italian stations. There is only a sink in the room and the bath is shared and is in the hall.



Here is the bathroom. Since i am the only one here, it is all mine, and just a few doors down.





The whole place is very clean. She cleans the rooms and bath every day. There is a common area at the front where you check in that has a TV, a coffee machine and stools and high tables. I spent last night there talking to the family. They are really nice people. They have 2 children, a 3 year old daughter and a very sweet 16 year old son. He Called in an order for me for chinese food last night. It took over an hour to get here and didn't taste like back home. There was no rice with it and I have to say that I had to make many trips to the bathroom all night. Won't be trying that again!

This morning I had coffee, a croissant, an apple and she had some other packaged cookies sitting out. The coffee machine is the kind that you usually have to put coins in, but she has it working for free. I accidentally drank the coffee she was making for herself but I liked it so that is now my coffee of choice. I will have to look up the name.

The family lives in some of the rooms on this floor. The hotel sits on a main street so it is a bit noisy, but no worse than any of the other places I've stayed.

I went back to the train station this morning and got a round trip ticket to Pisa. I will probably go tomorrow. Then I walked into the town center and guess what I found?? Another outdoor market! Walked around there for quite awhile and then headed to the harbor to check it out. They usually have a tourist bus running that you can get on and off all day for 10 euro but I found out that this is the off season so it only runs when the cruise ships come to town. That will happen next Mon and Tues. The owner Dai, sent me a link to a website about paying 5 euro for 3 days of travel on the city buses plus discounts for many places in town. Two of the buses go up the coast so I will do that later in the week.

The other thing I am looking for is a pet store so I can buy clippers to cut Seymour's nails and see if I can find another crate for him - but the clippers are most important! The Tourist Information office gave me a map and marked 2 places I could go - both are a long walk, in fact one might be a bus ride so maybe I will get lucky and find a bus that goes past the pet store.

We are staying in the basic city part of Livorno. Not a lot to see here; you have to go into the city center to start seeing some of the old sites.

But it is only about 20 minutes from the train station and seems safe, so the location is good.

Here are a few pictures I took on my walk this morning:































I am totally exhausted from walking so much. I probably walk about 4 hours a day. Seymour and I are probably just going to take it easy the rest of the day - one more walk for him - and then start fresh tomorrow. I bought my traditional bread, cheese, fruit, olives, and chocolate to keep me full! I do plan to get some seafood before I leave since we are right on the coast.

I am making plans to stay at a B and B in Assisi next week and then on to that apartment in Cinque Terre. I haven't made plans after that except that I am going south for the rest of my trip.

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