Bugs Bunny

The fast cruiseferry “Moby Aki” in the “Porto Mediceo”. As usual Moby Lines ferries sport funny Looney Tunes liveries. A cruiseferry is a ship that combines the features of a cruise ship with a ferry. Many passengers travel with the ships for the cruise experience, staying only a few hours at the destination port or not leaving the ship at all, while others use the ships as means of transportation. Please note the odd Polish flag waving just in front of Bugs Bunny.

Update: it seems that the Polish flag is waving on the stern of the “Pogoria”, a training ship subject of another post.

Search labels: Moby - ferry

Five and Five

The Old Venice
Pizza and 5 & 5
take away
Typical Local Cooking - Grilled Meat and Fish
Quality Wines
Climatized premises - Reservations appreciated

Everything checks out, but what about “cinque e cinque” or 5 & 5?
Who of you, outside of Livorno, knows what a 5 & 5 is?Ming was close to the truth: a five & five is a sandwich which, long time before the Euro, was just 5 cents (old italian lira) of bread and 5 cents of “torta”.
“Torta” is short for “torta di ceci” (literally chickpea pie) which local vendors prepare with water, chickpea flour, salt and a bit of olive oil. The batter is poured in large pans called “teglie” and baked preferably in a wood oven.
The resulting thin pie (more a pancake) is crunchy and crispy on the outside but soft on the inside, and you have to eat it hot, with a sprinkling of ground pepper. You can eat it in slices like pizza or in a sandwich and... voilà the “cinque e cinque”!

See also: Gold of Pisa

Mural Crown

Last year Livorno changed its coat of arms and swapped its traditional gems crown for a mural crown with eight turrets (five visibles).
Of a mural crown Wikipedia says:
The term is also used in heraldry to denote a crown modeled after the walls of a castle. In recent times, mural crowns have been used in opposition to royal crowns; they are typical of Italian medieval and modern Communes. A mural crowned lady, Italia Turrita, is a symbol of Italy. In Italy, communes have a mural crown on their coat of arms, golden, with five towers, for cities.The municipality spent some time, and probably some money, on this quest for heraldic certainty, with the help of a few consultants and an exchange of letters between Livorno and Rome.
Fine, but now the sea is flooding the main gate...

See also: Town Hall - Piazza del Municipio - Coat of Arms

Versione italiana

Beacon of the Pisans

The “Fanale dei Pisani” (literally Pisans' beacon) is the main lighthouse of the port of Livorno. It is an imposing structure 52 meter tall and, obviously, here is simply called “fanale”. The Repubblica di Pisa, which in the 13th century was interested in the hamlet of Livorno and its harbour, built the tower around 1305 on the south of the entrance to the port. They needed to replace the lighthouse on the Meloria islet, destroyed by the Genoeses in the naval battle of 1284.
Through the centuries bonfires on the top were substituted by an oil lamp, then by a gas lantern and at last by electricity. The six hundred years old tower was demolished by German sappers in 1944. After the war the Fanale has been faithfully rebuilt, mainly out of the original wreckage, coming back in service in 1956.

Chili Pepper & Macchiaioli

Giovanni Fattori, born in Livorno in 1825, was one of the leaders of the Macchiaioli group of painters, the Tuscan forerunners of the Impressionists. In Largo del Cisternino his statue is looking quite puzzled at the shop sign, which says: “Peperoncino. Lusso no grazie! Solo stile e buon gusto” (Chili pepper. Luxury no thank you! style and taste only).

External links: Giovanni Fattori - Macchiaioli (Wikipedia)

Versione italiana

Gazebos

Destroyed during the Second World War, the Gazebo has been rebuilt in 1998 on the same site and almost as an exact replica of the original, as you can see from the period postcard.The first Gazebo was built in 1935 by the architect Ghino Venturi at the south end of the “Terrazza Mascagni” (then Terrazza Ciano). The construction, shaped as a round temple, was intended as a bandstand.

Search labels: Terrazza Mascagni

Versione italiana

Crab Catcher

It's a sunny but cold day in January and this man in waterproof gear is tirelessly wading through the shallow waters in front of the Terrazza Mascagni. He is fishing for crabs of a kind called favollo (warty crab), enticing the crustaceans out of their hidings with some bait at the end of a rod and deftly grabbing his prey as soon as it shows up. With care, because the little creatures are mean pinchers with their powerful claws.