Day 16 - Sunday, 11/24/24 - Livorno - Day 2

 For our second day in Livorno, Italy, we were able to sleep in a bit longer as we did not need to  meeti our group until 8:45am.  We scanned off the ship and found our guide Rossella who was our guide yesterday.  We did an about an hour drive to San Miniato which is holding a Trufflefest over three weekends in November.  This weekend is the middle one.  There were all kinds of booths selling all kinds of food products including the namesake item:  Truffles.  I was not very aware of truffles before this visit, but the other two couples were very keen on them.  Truffles are a mushroom type item that is prized as a delicacy seasoning item for various dishes.  They purchased a truffle (70E).  The group shared in the cost.  I was also able to purchase a couple of watch batteries for Angela's fitness tracker which went dead the day before.









Leaving the Trufflefest, we did a short drive to the Ristorante Venanzio in Piazza Palestro where we had a group lunch.  Angela and I shared a cold cuts appetizer and a gnochi & truffle dish.  Both were excellent.  We then drove over to the little village of Vinci to tour a museum devoted to the engineering prowess of Leonardo da Vinci.  It was pretty amazing to see the creative genius of da Vinci who visualized many mechanical objects hundreds of years before their practical development.  Examples include airplanes, helicopters, self propelled vehicles, bevel gears, transmissions, cranes, and many more.  There were many nice models demonstrating the detailed da Vinci drawings.  It was a very cool museum.

We made it back to the ship around 5pm and observed some heavy loading going on in the darkness and a nippy wind.  Onboard I installed the batteries in Angela's fitness tracker before attending the 6pm evening Sunday interdenominational service in an absolutely freezing Wajang theater.


Our excursion group met in the Caneletto where our leader had arranged for the chef to cook a pasta dish with the truffle we purchased today.  It was enhanced by some truffles packaged in oil that our group leader purchased as well.  We enjoyed great conversation around the table in a pretty empty restaurant.    Just before 9 we excused ourselves to attend the 9pm Repertory Group. Performance of Movie Tunes.  It was really good.

On the way back to the room I met the Executive chef and he was totally excited about us purchasing truffles and having the Canaletto chef prepare a dish with them.

Coming back to the room, we learned that the Seattle Seahawks football game was on TV, so we watched the first half.  They ended up winning 16-6 over Arizona.

Speaking of tomorrow, we are once again overnighting at the port of Civitavecchia (gateway to Rome).  We have independent excursions planned for both days and we're not going into Rome as all of us have been there previously.

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