“Via Cairoli” toward “Piazza Cavour”, from behind the Cathedral.
An out of season and menacing Santa says: “Buy”.
“Using the zebra crossing you will be cut in half”.
Too many road signs...
“Butcher shop, the pleasure of fresh meat”. In Italian “carne” is both meat and flesh.
We have already seen in “Scali delle Ancore” that a hardware store uses a side window as a gallery for local paintings.
This time the subject is an older version of the “Darsena Vecchia”, while the recent photo is much more crowded with larger and less picturesque boats.
The front door of the “Palazzo Santa Elisabetta” (Saint Elizabeth), in “Via Marradi”, underlined by a set of advertising panels on the other side of the street, in “Piazza Attias”.
The monument to Ferdinand III, Grand Duke of Tuscany, by the sculptor Francesco Pozzi, was erected in the southern part of “Piazza della Repubblica” around 1840.
He is facing the statue of another Grand Duke of Tuscany, Leopold II, sculpted in 1855 by Emilio Santarelli to replace the monument damaged in 1849 and now placed in “Piazza XX Settembre”.
“The Bad Elf”, with its funny sign, is a pub in “Via della Posta”.
“Paparazzi” is the plural of “paparazzo”, an intrusive photographer usually chasing celebrities. This is a restaurant in “Via Magenta”.
“De bello gallico” (Of the Gallic War) was Julius Caesar's firsthand account of the Gallic Wars, while “Ribello Gallo” is a brasserie in “Via dell'Angiolo”, whose name may mean “rebel rooster”.
Yellow grille shutter, “Via Mentana”.
The clock of the Cathedral.
Awning of the bar “Giubbe Rosse” (Red Coats), “Piazza Grande”.
The windows of the Synagogue.
A window seen from an opening of the porticoes in “Via Cairoli”.
The “Felicita West” is a 62 meter sailing yacht built in 2003 by the Perini Navi shipyard in Viareggio. Just for comparison, you can see on the right the 59 meter “I Dynasty”.
The overview on her website simply states that this is the largest and fastest aluminium sailing yacht in the world.
To the really daring ones they offer the most spectacular views from the crow's nest lift that ascends 40 meters (131 feet). The boat is available for charter.
The “Chiesa della Santissima Trinità” (Church of the Most Holy Trinity) in “Borgo dei Cappuccini”. As the address says, this is the church of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin, which has been in Livorno since the 16th Century.
In the course of centuries the original building has been enlarged and remodeled several times. The actual church was completed in 1903, but it was almost completely rebuilt after the last war.
A 1937 card celebrating the first centenary as a parish church.
In the early 1653 Dutch and English squadrons have been chasing each other in the vicinity of the island of Elba. The Dutch were then able to capture the English frigate Phoenix and the ship was placed under the command of a young officer, Cornelis Tromp.
In March 1653 the English Captain Henry Appleton and his 6 ships were trapped in the port of Livorno (Leghorn), a neutral territory under the Grand Duke of Tuscany. With a successful sortie the English recaptured the Phoenix, but this action meant a violation of the port’s neutrality. The Dutch Admiral Johan van Galen asked the English ships to leave, but another squadron, commanded by Richard Badiley, was coming to rescue the trapped ships.
While the Dutch were sailing toward the new threat, the blockaded squadron saw the chance to escape and left the port. Surprisingly the Dutch engaged Appleton's ships and only one of them was able to flee and rejoin the incoming English squadron.
The Dutch moved then toward Badiley's squadron. Outnumbered 16 to 9 the English ships were forced to retreat. Admiral Van Galen was mortally wounded in the action and died on March 23.
Just before Christmas, in this age of stylish and sleek smartphones, my attention was caught by this fluffy white set.
The works at the new canal are almost completed on this side and you can walk freely along the mint new parapets.
There is only a skeleton of the future footbridge and no trace of the road bridge to be build where now there is only an embankment. Lack of funds, it seems...
This is the funny sign of a fried food shop in “Piazza XX Settembre”. “6 fritto” in Italian means literally “you are fried” and colloquially “you are done”.
A quite old fashioned sign outside a bar in “Piazza Mazzini”.
Just beside and slightly behind the statue of Leopold II of Tuscany in “Piazza XX Settembre” you can see an artistic bee house, with a perfectly designed door with hinges and lock.
Heraldic bees have always been a symbol of industriousness and, in a later period, of some Napoleonic heritage. Four larger bees are at the door, while twelve more appear on the side.
So near to sea, our love padlocks are getting rustier by the day.
You are probably familiar with this lamp post from the left picture in our header. It was taken when the post was still in better shape.
“Dea” (Goddess) dance school in “Via del Platano”.
The external lift of the “Grande” movie theater.
A balustrade on the side of the Cathedral, in “Piazza Grande”.
The balcony of the Deutsche Bank in “Piazza Cavour”.
Bororo Free Territory, an art gallery right on the “Fosso Reale”.
In the side window of a hardware store in “Borgo dei Cappuccini” it is quite common to see on display works of local painters.
I recently tried to capture in a photo almost the same view of the painting, a few decades old, of the “Scali delle Ancore” .
I don't know much about the “Silos Ardenza”: it is a battery of tall grain silos inside the cargo port, visible from almost everywhere in town.
The huge structure has nothing to do with the quarter of Ardenza, practically on the opposite side of Livorno.
In a quite remote corner of the “Villa Fabbricotti” park we can see a sculpture representing Leda and the Swan that was once part of a beautiful fountain.
In the early years of 1900, Pedro Alessandro Bossio, the honorary consul of Argentina, became the new owner of “Villa Attias”. Both the building and the park were restored and enriched, the fountain was commissioned to the sculptor Luigi Brizzolara.
In an old photo of the villa, the fountain is clearly visible.
In 1968 the villa was demolished to make room for new buildings and for what is now “Piazza Attias”. The basins and the sculpture were moved to the place where now they stand.
