Frequently Asked Questions
Large ships berth at the Porto Industriale, about three kilometres from the centre; a shuttle reaches Piazza Grande in a quarter of an hour. Smaller vessels sometimes get the Porto Mediceo, from which Via Grande is about ten minutes on foot.
By train from Livorno station, about 15 minutes, with departures every 30 minutes. The leaning tower is then twenty minutes' walk from Pisa station. From Piazza Grande, bus number 1 reaches the station in five minutes.
By train, 75 to 90 minutes depending on the service. Expect a full day between the Duomo, the Ponte Vecchio and the Uffizi, with booking strongly advised for the museums.
You do have to decide, yes. Pisa is close and combines easily with a Livorno afternoon. Florence takes the whole day: leave early and keep a good two hours' margin before departure.
More than you would think. The Venezia Nuova district and its canals dug by the Medici in the seventeenth century, the Fortezza Vecchia standing guard for five centuries, the Fortezza Nuova turned into a public garden, and the Four Moors monument near the dock.
The canal district, dug in the seventeenth century by the Medici to link warehouses and docks. Boats glide under the bridges, between ochre facades and former goods stores, and boat trips tour it by water.
Livorno's covered market, in a nineteenth-century hall alongside a canal: the night's fish, pecorinos, dried tomatoes and vendors calling to shoppers under the glass roof. This is where you understand the recipe for cacciucco.
Livorno's signature soup, in which several kinds of fish and shellfish simmer together, served over garlic bread in the trattorias near the market. One plate is enough to tell centuries of exchange between fishermen, Greek sailors and Levantine traders.
A terrace of black and white chequerboard paving above the water, along the seafront to the south, edged by a century-old balustrade. Livorno families stroll there in late afternoon. Nothing to buy, nothing to do, except look at the Mediterranean.
The automatic machines accept international cards. Note: validating your ticket before boarding remains compulsory on Italian regional lines, and inspectors show no mercy to the absent-minded.
