My Italian Adventure

When I sailed on the Crown Princess back in April, we called into the ports Livorno (for Florence and Pisa) and also Civitavecchia (the port for Rome). As my partner hadn’t been to either and each port is approx an hour from the cities, we decided to do a shore excursion in each one and after reading through the tours offered through Princess cruises and www.cruisingexcursions.com we opted to do them through cruising excursions as they were cheaper than Princess but still offered us the guarantee of getting us back to the ship.

In Civitavecchia we took the Complete Tour – Essential Collection and we had to take the shuttle bus into the town to meet our guide as the buses were not allowed to pick up from the quayside (only the Princess tour buses were) We met our guide and set off for the hour drive to Rome. First stop was the Colosseum and we had about 20 minutes to walk round to take photos but sadly not long enough to go inside but we did know this when we booked it.

We then drove into Rome to commence our walking tour which took in The Trevi Fountain, The Pantheon and Piazza Navona. We had an hours free time for lunch/shopping before we met back up with the coach and drove to St Peter’s Square – home of St Peter’s Basilica and again not enough time to go inside. We had about 45 minutes there before the hours drive back to the ship.

In Livorno we took the Essential Collection Picturesque Pisa and Famous Florence tour. We had to get the shuttle bus to take us to the meeting point just outside the port gates. We had a very informative guide and we drove to Pisa first which took approx 45 minutes, and then it was a short walk (approx 15 minutes) to the Square of Miracles where we then had free time of just under an hour to take the obligatory pose of trying to push the leaning tower up and to walk round to look at the Pisa Cathedral, Pisa bapistry and the Monumental Cementry, sadly there wasn’t time to climb the tower and there is plenty of looky looky people to sell you souvenirs, selfie sticks etc.

From Pisa we then drove to Florence which took about an hour and a half, and then on arrival we had a walking tour of the city. Our guide was very informative (on some things too informative) and we got to see the Santa Maria Del Fiore Cathedral, Giotto’s Bell Tower and Brunelleschi’s Dome, the Orsanmichele Church, the Piazza della Signoria (Palazzo Vecchio), and the Uffizi Gallery. We then had about an hour and a halfs free time which gave us time for the obligatory pizza and gelato. Back at the meeting point we then walked along the river and met back up with the bus which took us to a great photostop looking across Florence before the hour and a half drive back to the ship.

I would definietly recommend both trips and if you are looking at taking shore excursions then I would suggest you look at www.cruisingexcursions.com and compare what they have to offer with the cruise lines own tours as they often tend to do the same tour but cheaper price. If you see one you like then let me know and I can get them booked for you.

Have a good couple of weeks and hopefully summer will return

Kerry

xx