Livorno is an overnight port which is great because there’s so much to see and do here. This is our second day here and the all aboard time is 6:30pm, which gives us plenty of time. With the Free at Sea promotion, you get $50 excursion credit per port, and with the overnight dock, you can get $50 off each day, which is pretty awesome. Today, we booked the excursion Discovering The Ligurian Coast by Rubber Boat. This was a popular excursion and our group was so big that they assigned us two tour guides so the group could be divided in half.
We first boarded a bus that took us through some beautiful areas of Tuscany, then we boarded a rubber boat in the small town of Lerici.
Lerici is a small town in the region of Liguria. Italy is divided into “regions“, then provinces. There are 20 regions total, and this excursion goes from the region of Tuscany to the region of Liguria. The entire region of Liguria is gorgeous, along the coast of Ligurian Sea.
There are many cool things to see from the boat. For example, the Lerici Castle.
We also went by a little tower in the middle of the sea called Scola Tower. The tower was built for military purposes in early 17th century. During the Napoleonic Wars, the British damaged the tower.
We could also see the Porto Venere Natural Park from a distance.
We got off the boat at Porto Venere and were given some free time to eat and shop. There are lots of seafood and pizza restaurants around here. We chose Al Gabbiano because the menu looked good and it’s got a great water front location. Lots of local cuisines to try here, such as the Ligurian-Style Stuffed Anchovies or the Mussels in Marinara.
Of course, some local pizza is a must. This is called Porto Venere Pizza on the menu. It comes with organic tomato sauce, mozzarella, tuna, anchovies and olives.
For dessert, we ordered the Mille-feuille, but it was not much like a mille-feuille. It had Chantilly cream, strawberries and dark chocolate chips. It tasted good but it was small.
Overall the food was very good here, price was fair, lots of choices, service was great, and the view was amazing. Next we walked along the coast. There are many gelato shops here. We skipped getting any since we just had a dessert. It looked really good though. Just a word of warning: the “scoops” here are about 1/5 of a scoop size in the US.
Now we are nicely full, we took a leisurely stroll to the San Pietro Catholic Church. The view is beautiful here.
Then it was time to get back on the boat.
Back in Lerici, we were given some time to shop and explore. We stopped by a gelato shop called Gelateria “Il Lungomare” Lerici.
It was delicious. Just wish the scoops were bigger.
The walk along Lerici coast was beautiful.
To take in the beauty of Lerici, our tour guide recommended us to walk up any of the pedestrian roads up the hill. We chose Via Andrea Doria. It was a tough walk but very quaint and beautiful.
Now we are back on the bus to return to our cruise port. The scenery of this excursion is second to none. You would also get a glimpse of the Leaning Tower of Pisa on the bus ride, which I imagine could be exciting for people who had not been there before.