Rome, Livorno shore excursions

Just wondering if these ports are similar to Alaskan and Pacific Island cruise ports where there you can choose tour operators at the port. Arriving September.

Same info as when you poste this two hours prior:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2027553

Same info as when you poste this two hours prior:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2027553

There are many different private tour operators, but they are not lined up at the port looking for business. For the most part, other than HOHO type tours, you need to arrange in advance.

There are many different private tour operators, but they are not lined up at the port looking for business. For the most part, other than HOHO type tours, you need to arrange in advance.

Euro cruiser thank you very much for this info, it will help in our planning when not knowing what to expect.

Definitely arrange private tours in advance, so you can check their reviews on sites such as Trip Advisor before choosing. You need to know other's assessments to make informed choices and get the best experiences for your money.

Just wondering if these ports are similar to Alaskan and Pacific Island cruise ports where there you can choose tour operators at the port. Arriving September.

If you haven't been to Pisa or Florence, they are excellent to see in a day. There are great tours available; time to see the tower of Pisa and the town; then to Florence where you can see David, or one of the other museums or wander around the beautiful city.

I'm not an official anything, but we've done this a few times and if you are looking for a reliable tour, let me know. Someone recommended them to me about 6 years ago and I would be happy to pass along the favor. Just can't name them here. If you want the name email me at teragram1234@msn.com.

From Livorno you can go by train on your own to Florence (probably frustrating, because Florence needs a lot more time than the drive-by which is all you can do in a one day trip from Livorno). A good alternative is Lucca - a closer, much smaller medieval walled city which you can pretty well see in the time available. Pisa really has very little other than the tower, but you could probably check that out either going to or from Lucca, as you change trains there.

Rome is over an hour drive form ship. We were afraid to chance it so we booked through ship. I will say this when we got to the coliseum there were LONGGGGGG lines for getting tickets and we already had ours so we wee glad we did for that reason too.

If you want to go the Pisa there was a bus to the train station and that does not take long at all. for Florence you have a longer train ride.

We used ship's tours for that too. We did Pisa in the morning and a Tuscany winery that afternoon.

Now Venice we did on our own thanks to Rick Steves' book. It was very simple form where we docked. We got on the people mover for 2 or maybe 3 stops-and bought 24 hour passes for the water bus since we over-nighted in Venice.

We took the train from Livorno to Florence and had plenty of time to see one of the museums in depth, then have a leisurely lunch and let the women shop for a bit before heading back to Livorno. If you have arrangements made in advance, you can likely see a couple of museums.

My suggestion would be to go to the Ports of Call section of these boards, go to Europe and then Italy and start reading. You will get the names of various tour operators and then you can make arrangements to get tickets to the museums in advance, which will save you all kinds of time, and then go from there. I agree with navybankerteacher that you won't have time to really do all of Florence, as it really requires more time, but if you are on a cruise and have one day, you do what you can.

Rome In Limo for both ports -- if you book both on their website, you'll get a discount on each.