I'll do this day by day with each port first then general items about the ship/cruise later. I'll also try and post photos soon too. So much to do and still doing the laundry!! Hope you enjoy!

Day 1 - Villefranche Arrived before 10am and tendering started pretty quickly so no delays. Off ship by 10.15 am and met Fred our driver at the port gateway. Did a trip with Dream Tours - excellent. Good driver who spoke good English and was flexible. Very interesting trip and going in a small (8 seater) minivan meant we could go up narrow streets and up hills (as in St Paul de Vence), overtaking the cruise ship passengers who had to walk up from their coaches at the bottom of the hill on a very hot day! Great value for money, much cheaper than the cruise ship equivalent trip. We went to Nice for an hour or so on our own, then on to St Paul de Vence for 1 3/4 hrs (a bit too long really, an hour is sufficient) then on to Monaco (casino, etc.) and around the Monte Carlo grand prix race track. Absolutely brilliant as the Gp was the following weekend and all the hoarding and fencing was up so it felt like we were racing drivers!! Then he took us up to the Monaco Palace and the cathedral for an hour on our own. Then back to the ship in plenty of time. He offered us Eze on the way back but we decided to get back in good time as we were tendering to the ship. We had plenty of time on our own for shopping, eating, drinking and still saw lots of places in a relaxed manner. Great!

Day 2 - Livorno Woke up in a huge container dock! Absolutely massive!! We hadn't decided what to do for definite other than to catch the train to Florence and perhaps Pisa. When we saw where we were we went down to guest relations at about 8.30am and bought the $8 return tickets for the shuttle bus to get us into town. Got off the bus and looked across the street for the Tobacco shop where you buy tickets for the bus to the railway station. Got tickets and the man told us to walk slightly further down the street to the bus station on the square for the bus to the station. Check with the driver if you are going the right way! The lady driver shouted 'station' when we got there with a smile! The bus stops right outside and then you just queue up for tickets. The shuttle bus ride takes about 20 minutes around the huge docks (not walkable) and then the bus another 10 minutes so by the time we got to the station and had to wait nearly another hour for the train we gave up on Florence and just caught the train to Pisa. This took about 15 minutes and then another 20 minutes walk to the Leaning tower, all flat walking. We spent about half an hour just wandering around a very packed square and then back to the station, and back to Livorno, back on the bus, then the shuttle bus back to the ship. Quite a journey but doable! Not many taxis outside the ship other than the ones wanting full day trips so if you want to go by train then you need to use the shuttle bus to get off the docks into town. If you want to visit Florence then you really need to leave early and if it was me I'd opt for a Florence & Pisa 'on our own' trip with the ship or a private minivan. Read more