Port 61 Livorno, Italy

by Ed · Published May 4, 2022 · Updated May 4, 2022

Buono giorno!

We pulled in to Livorno under clear, sunny skies on Apr 29th, 2022! By the time I stepped out we were already tying up to the pier. We had some phenomenal buildings popping up in our view from the veranda. More exploration coming!

The Old Fortress (Fortezza Vecchia) occupies the harbor with us! Beautiful!

On the waterfront is this statue that is a monument to Ferdinand de’ Medici I with four Moors in captivity, commemorating his defeat over the Ottoman empire’s attempted takeover.

As we entered town we spotted this fountain and another one identical to it on the other side of the street. This is a bizzare design, but intriguing!

The face depicted has commanlity with the “Creature from the Black Lagoon” series, and the creature in the movie “The Shape of Water”. If you haven’t seen that movie, I highly recommend it!

This is the Cathedral of San Francesco. The building is very new.

The interior is very stiff, blocky. It is very 2-dimensional and not appealing to me.

Next we find the Church of Saint Giulia (Chiesa di Santa Giulia). This has a simple facade that is missing two scultputres.

The interior of this one, while fairly simple, anchors the body with the dark lower walls and pews, but raises the eyes and soul to the geometric shapes on the ceiling. This is still somewhat 2-dimensional, like the previous church, but has significantly more appeal to me!

The foyer of the church surprised us with the remnants of beautiful frescoes partially preserved!

Continuing down the street we find the street market. This part is filled with fresh fruit and vegetable stands!

A few blocks away, up against the old market building, is the material goods market.

Then inside the building is the fish and meat market!

But we find a wonderful olive oil place in the market. He provides free samples! We sit down to some sample some olive oil, and some Bolgeri wine, along with a cappuccino.

We end up buying some olive oil (2022 Best Olive Oil of the World Winner!), and two bottles of wine!

Near the market we found this church. It is closed now and used for other purposes. But based on the facade, this is a sad loss for the neighborhood!

In the square is this humble figure of A. Camillo Benso, an important statesman who helped unify Italy in the late 1800’s. I have never seen a statue like this – a humble, slightly overweight gentleman with his waistcoat only buttoned at the top. All others have been heroic, lean figures! I really like this one!

This statue is dedicated to the people who leaped from the trenches to become heroes and helped Italy achieve immortality! Fabulous!

This is the Church of Saint Marie of Rescue (Chiesa di Santa Maria del Soccorso). It, too, appears to be closed, the graffiti partially removed.

Next we find the Piazza della Republica. This is a huge plaza anchored at each end by large statues!

At the first end (south end) we find A. Fernando III. He ensured the city had safe public waters.

At the far end (north end) we find a statue with a declaration in hand. The inscription on the base dated 16 Aug 1859 declares that this location has made itself incompatible with the Tuscany regime. This established what needed to be done to unify north and south Italy.

Continuing on in to the “Little Venice” part of Livorno, we stumbled across this sad park with the statue of Giuseppe Garibaldi in 1889. He was a general involved in the battles to unite Italy.

OK, now let’s take a little look at “Little Venice”. The New Fortress {Fortrezza Nuova) resides at the north end of the Piazza della Republica. This water connects all of the way to the sea!

A little farther north Little Venice’s canal wraps around the east wall of the New Fortress. People apparently have privat garages along the water to store their belongings and supplies. These are not garages for the boats. The boats stay moored to the piers along the waterfront.

We took a differnt route back to the ship and found these jewels. This is the Church of Saint Andrew.

This is the entrance to the Cistern (Cisternone) underneath Livorno. It is a unique building with the half-dome roof.

Here we have the backside of the Cathedral of San Francesco we showed earlier. Stately and beautiful!

Finally, this is an interesting building! I saw it from three different angles and every one looked like a different building! This is the only Jewish synagogue I found in the city – the Synagogue of Livorno!