Carnival Vista Review 1st Oct 2016. -Oh No I`ve lost my anchor!!!

[trogmd]

Enjoying your review.

 

Thanks Robyn, glad you are enjoying it. :)

[trogmd]

Today we were in Livorno Italy.

The original plan was to stay on board today as we had been here a couple of times on previous cruises. My brother was going to Florence and Pisa on his own.

However as we had stayed on the ship in Marseilles I decided to join him and go ashore. My brother had met a lovely couple called Sandra and Craig while watching the football game yesterday. ( hi guys hope you are well, it was fun traveling with you.)

The four of us were hoping to join a mini bus tour that we knew waited at the tour gates for passengers leaving the ship. Myself and Kieron had done the exact same thing on one of our previous visits here.

 

Before I go into detail of our time ashore I will show you this mornings view from my balcony....

 

 

 

As you can see it was partly cloudy and another industrial port.....

 

 

view from on deck...

 

 

 

We went to breakfast in the buffet as we were meeting at 8.30am at the gangway.

[trogmd]

So we met Sandra And Craig at the gangway as planned and they said they had found 4 other people who were also going on a minibus tour of Florence and Pisa. Our 4 new travel mates were from Israel. They were some of the loveliest people I have met on a cruise. We all got on very well and we all met each other at various times during the cruise. :) ( Gershon and Shoshana, hope you both are well and it was a pleasure to meet you.)

 

I can`t remember the name of the company we used for the tour but it was a fantastic days tour and only cost 45euro each, about 100euro less than Carnival.

 

Our first stop was Florence which was over an hours drive away. We were dropped off at about 10am and given till 2pm to explore.

This is the square we were dropped off at...

 

 

 

 

The detail close up is amazing...

 

 

 

 

[trogmd]

We had a drink at a nice but very small Irish bar that was to the right of where I was stood in the previous photos. Sorry I did not get a pic.

We then walked along to the square where the replica statue of David is....

 

 

This one was new since my last visit here...

 

 

 

 

 

[trogmd]

This was also new....??? eh.

 

 

Replica David....

 

 

 

We then walked to the famous bridge with shops on ...

 

 

the pic above and below were taken from the famous bridge....

 

 

The street was so narrow here...

 

 

 

[trogmd]

Finally a pic of the bridge with shops on ....

 

 

View across the river...

 

 

 

 

We walked through another square....

 

 

[trogmd]

Some more of our walk...

 

 

 

 

We went into a Ice cream shop on the way back to the mini bus and I had a large cup with 3 flavors for 6 euro. It was delicious but not as good as the last time I had been here. Sorry no pic.

 

We all got back in the van and made our way to Pisa.

We arrived there at about 3pm.

It was a perfect blue sky by then and really warm as well....

 

 

 

[trogmd]

I think I`m doing a great job of stopping it from crashing down don`t you think. :D

 

 

We walked around to the other side of the church to the left of the tower, which is where they have some toilets and charge you a 1 euro fee for the use of them :eek::eek::eek:

 

This door has some great carvings on it of stories from the bible.

 

 

[trogmd]

The full view of the building...

 

 

 

I wish this guy would stop trying to gain all the attention :)

 

We looked around a few of the market stalls dotted about and then it was time to return to the ship...

 

 

And a nice refreshing cocktail....

 

 

 

[trogmd]

We went to dinner early that day with 2 of our new friends S & C.

This is the window table view in the upstairs of the Horizon restaurant....

 

 

This view is a pic of the sun going down from the same table....

 

 

I got to the main course and suddenly remembered I should be getting pics of the food for my review,

I had the ribs...

 

 

followed by smoors parfait which was gorgeous and I had a piece of peach pie with butter pecan ice cream as well....

 

 

 

After dinner I returned to the room to find this guy waiting for me...

 

[trogmd]

I had great towel animals every night...

 

 

 

We went to the piano bar to finish off the evening and after a long day I was in bed for 10.30pm.

It had been another great day and I was going to need the sleep as tomorrow`s port was Rome.

 

Hope you all are enjoying the review, I will post my day in Rome tomorrow... :)

[carnivaladdix120]

First off let me say that I am so very sorry for your loss! It is very inspiring that you still went on the cruise and also posted this beautiful review :) I am absolutely enjoying every second of it! Your pics are amazing and I love your humor! Looking forward to the rest ;)

[pusywillow]

I just caught up with your review. First, I am so sorry for your loss. Second, you are doing a great job with the review. I am enjoying the pics so much.

 

Sue

[trogmd]

First off let me say that I am so very sorry for your loss! It is very inspiring that you still went on the cruise and also posted this beautiful review :) I am absolutely enjoying every second of it! Your pics are amazing and I love your humor! Looking forward to the rest ;)

 

Thank you so much for your lovely words and the next part will be posted later on today. :)

[trogmd]

I just caught up with your review. First, I am so sorry for your loss. Second, you are doing a great job with the review. I am enjoying the pics so much.

 

Sue

 

 

Thanks Sue, glad you like the review. :)

[trogmd]

Today we`re off to Rome, but before we do lets see the view from the balcony this morning....

 

 

A great big ugly power station is your welcome to the Roman port, never mind we will see lots of nice buildings later on in Rome.

 

 

From up on deck...

 

 

 

 

[trogmd]

A nice view of the slides...

 

 

It was a quick breakfast and then off to meet S&C at the gangway for 8.30am. We had enjoyed our day with them yesterday and agreed to tour Rome with them as well.

At the port in Civ..... there is a free shuttle that takes you out of the port and to a bus stop next to the port. From here you can catch a bus or taxi into town or to the train station. There is a bus service to the train station for only 3 euro each way, buy a return ticket as it is much easier for the return journey.

 

Now "the plan" called for us to get the train to Rome and then get the red City sightseeing bus to tour Rome on, the hop on, hop off bus.

When we bought our bus ticket the woman selling them said that we could buy a "Berg" ticket that lets you travel on Trains, Buses, and subway trains for 24hrs all for the enormous sum of 12 euro. Yes that's right 12 euro only. So needless to say we decided to get a Berg ticket for the day, what a bargain. :)

:)

 

So we made our way onto the train platform....

 

 

 

and climbed aboard a lovely double decker train....

 

[trogmd]

The train journey took about 50 mins. We got off at the station before the Vatican as we were going there last on our tour. We got a subway train to Circus Maximus and then walked to the Coliseum....

 

 

 

 

 

 

[trogmd]

Yet again we had gorgeous warm weather for October.

The Coliseum looked great as well ....

 

 

This next pic looks as though they are adding new walls for support perhaps....

 

 

We then made our way to the wedding cake statue passing this on the way....

 

 

 

 

[bluwes]

We did it the opposite way around. Vatican first all the way around, Spanish Steps, Trevi fountain, Pantheon,etc and ended up at the Colosseum, then got the subway to termini and train back to the port

[trogmd]

We went on foot most of the day as most of the sights were quite close together. Keith bought a street map with them all on and Sandra did a fantastic job of getting us all onto the correct roads reading the map and the street signs to make sure they matched up.

 

Rome is full of statues on every corner it seems....

 

 

We then had to play "chicken" with the buses as we crossed the road to try and get a good pic of "the Wedding Cake" .....

 

 

 

I love the trees in Rome...

 

 

We then made our way to this lovely square next to the Pantheon.....

 

 

[trogmd]

 

 

 

We went into one of the cafes here for a much needed drink and had a lovely view from our table....

 

 

Then it was a short walk to the Trevi Fountain ....

 

 

[trogmd]

It was quite difficult to get good pictures here as it was absolutely heaving with people here, and the sun was not in a good position for decent pics....

 

 

 

We passed a couple of street artists ....

 

 

and then made our way to the Vatican across this bridge ....

 

 

 

[trogmd]

This bridge was very impressive with its statues ...

 

 

 

 

Vatican City from a distance ....

 

 

He Just has to get in on the act again ....:D

 

[trogmd]

The very center of Vatican Square is now blocked off to visitors but you can walk around the fountain on the left side....