Arriving at the airport to sunshine and warmth was something of a shock on Sunday. It took us all of about a minute to shed jackets and extra layers.  We had expected Rob and Audrey to meet us, and show us the way to the train station, but instead we were met by our hosts, Simona and Alessandro, as well as a family friend.  We got the interesting route to Livorno, which gave us an inkling of the amazing industrial strength of this part of Italy.  We passed acres of new cars, waiting to be shipped from Livorno’s busy port to destinations world-wide.  Traffic was heavy, and we passed, among other things, an active U.S. military base, now made more intimidating in appearance by barbed wire.  The road we took was an anomaly, a simple two-lane road lined with straight, old trees, clearly not a modern road.  When we drove into the town center, we drove past a seafront park, built in the last few years to help make the city more attractive to tourists.  Cruise ships which arrive here dock in Livorno, but the passengers are largely bused off immediately to Florence and Pisa, and Livorno would very much like them to spend some of their money here.  We stopped into a gelateria across from the park, and had gelato in many flavors not usually available to us – passion fruit, fresh raspberry, Nutella. We ate on the sidewalk, trying to down everything before it turned to liquid in the heat.  We then drove on to the apartment.

Tom and I had expected to share an apartment with our friends (very happily), but found that we had two, each with a full kitchen, big, comfortable bed in the bedroom and spacious bathroom.  Fantastic.

In the evening, all of us went out for a meal that would knock your socks off.  Antipasti of waver-thin salami and prociutto, spreads for bread, crostini and mussels arrived on the table, followed by seafood ravioli with huge prawns, complete with heads;  my own main dish was risotto cooked in squid ink – the whole dish black as the ink that was its prime ingredient.  It was delicious, but turned my whole mouth black.  Clearly, I had to drink some wine.

After everyone declared that they couldn’t eat another bite, we all had dessert;  cheesecake with a chocolate foundation, followed up with after-dinner liqueurs of lemoncello and the restaurant’s own herb liqueur.  I swear I’m going to eat lightly for the rest of the week.