Day 20 Livorno Italy

Here is the details of our shore excursion:

Get a taste of Tuscany with a tour and a tasting at a family-run farm. With local farmers leading the way, you're sure to get an in-depth look at the high-quality produce, Tuscan cuisine, and life on the farm. From Livorno, you'll travel a scenic route to the charming farm where you'll embark on a quaint horse-drawn carriage ride. At the farmhouse waits Davide and his wife Francesca, who run the farm with the help of their daughter Vittoria. Soak up the atmosphere as they take you on a tour of the truffle plantation, olive trees, and the vegetable garden. Then, enjoy fresh-picked-from-the-garden vegetables and homemade pastas accompanied by a generous wine tasting, including the sweet wine Vin Santo and tasty "cantuccini biscotti", a crunchy almond biscuit. Savor the spectacular views and the company of the farmers before returning to the ship.

Here is our opinion about the tour. We think we got tricked. Well maybe not ticked, per se, but misleading might be more accurate. Somehow from the description, we thought this was a small tour. There are 3 rows of people in the princess theater with green 11 stickers, and we boarded a huge bus. Well in their defense it did not say it is a small tour. There are 2 1/2 bus loads of us, so at about 50 people/bus, that's a not a small tour.

This is our house drawn carriage ride. We had a meal at 10am. Should have skipped breakfast, but we weren't thinking. Cheese, prosciutto, bread with olive oil and tomato and meat pasta. It was good, but a lot of food at that time for that time of the day.

Biscotti and their dessert wine. In the store we tried lemon-cello, orange-cello, chocolate-cello, and grappa. They were all very strong! I think I like the chocolate-cello the best, Paul likes orange-cello. 

When I tried the grappa, I could hardly swallow it. I tried to kiss Paul and give him the grappa, but he didn't want it; not that way! He drank the whole sample. Paul DID warn me it was super strong BEFORE I tried it. Lesson learned: When Paul says it's strong, believe him!

Paul thought our trip would be cooking the dishes like we did in Florence, but we didn't do any cooking here. It is lovely though.

We came back to the ship and Paul went to rest and I went to have a salad. We had a relaxing afternoon and in the evening played trivia games and went walking on the track because our excursion was not very active and we were nowhere near our 10,000 steps. We got it by the end of the evening.