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is your guide to discover
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Give a glance to the photo album of my city. Click on the album
and..... some ancient recepies
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Livorno is situated in the west part of Tuscany on the Tirreno sea. Even if
there are not so many very important historical monuments (this is also due to
the second world war and the destruction of the 80% of the city) and also the tourism
it's not so developped, my be for these reasons and for ot's "human" dimension
can be defines an optimal city where to live.The clima is normally nice and warm. The criminality is not at high levels; the sea and the coast are beautyfull and only the wind (mainly the strong "libeccio") is sometime nasty. Usefull Information Livorno dates back to Roman times. Under the Medici dynasty was the port developed. You can still see a pair of fortresses which had once been part of the town. You can catch a bus from the station to get to the old town in Piazza Grande 
(where is located the cathedral by A. Pieroni, 1581-95);
or a local bus which goes to the same square. From here its a five-minutes walk down Via
Grande to the Porto Mediceo
, where ferries leaves for the islands.
The Mediceo Port
is the most picturesque part of
the town, from here you can see the Sangallo's Fortezza Vecchia.
On Piazza Micheli there is a Renaissance statue of
Ferdinando Ių with four "Mori" or slaves,
which represents the arrival of slaves to the port.
Another beautiful part to have a look at is Fortezza Nuova,
from here through Piazza della Repubblica you can reach the Mercato Americano
(Mon.-Sat.) in Piazza XX Settembre, where you can buy old army clothing,
fishing and camping gear and Dick knives.
The central market
is in Via Buontalenti. Via Oberdan is a good place where you can find typical
restaurants and cafes.
Ardenza is the nearest beach to Livorno;
is ten minutes from Piazza della Repubblica by bus.
Another suggestion is Tirrenia (25 minutes by bus), a good beach where you can practise windsurf.
Ferries - There are two main ferry companies which operate to Elba (4 hr), Capraia, Gorgona,
Sardinia and Corsica. All the Islands ferries leave from Porto Mediceo. Some Sardinia and Corsica
ferries leave from Porto Industriale (30 min. by bus). Itis advisable
to book in advance for July and August. Another port where you can reache the
Tuscan Islands is Piombino which is cheaper and more reliable point of departure.
Toremar, To Elba (Portoferraio)
Capraia. Navarma,
to Sardinia (Olbia) , to Corsica (Bastia) Note : USA citizens traveling to Corsica will need to obtain a Visa from French
Consulate in via Montegrappa 6 (0586. 896368).Other info Livorno is a country of 104,79 km2 with 172.619 inhabitans, (Gorgona island included). It is only at 3 m of elevation, 15 km south of the Arno mouth, and it's a very important harbor, industrial and bathing center, with a great modern residential area. The original core of the city has mantained the poligonal aspect due to the old difensive wall built in the beginning of XVII century by Ferdinando I, but after it was included in the Italian Kingdom the old houses where pulled down and nuw large and straight streets, large squares, and nice "promenade" on the sea side. Starting from the area of the Porto Mediceo,
Livorno today has swallow the small countries Ardenza and Antignano.
Economy The economy of Livorno is strictly related with it's harbor activities. Re-Built in the 1924 and finisched in the 1932 has been enlarged after the II World War, today is the most active and better equipped in the west Mediterrean with it's annual traffic of 14,3 milion tons/year of loaded/downloaded goods and about 852.000 passengers. The main downloaded goods are: petrol, cereals, non metallic minerals, wood. Since some years ago a very big container traffic has been established in the Livorno harbor. Stock areas have been reserved in the vicinity of the city. Livorno is one of the main European harbor for the container traffic. In livorno we can found mechanic industry, industries for trasportation veichels production (mainly for ship construction). The Accademia navale,
built i the 1881 is one of the main boast of Livorno.History Fisherman village in the XIV century, Livorno was the south protection area of the ancient Middle Age Pisa harbor. Livorno was occupied by Genoa since 1421 when Florence both it. When the Pisa harbor disappear (XVI century), Livorno was the only harbor of the area and . Cosimo I de' Medici decided to make Livorno the main harbor of the Tuscany. In the past century, due to the "Costituzione Livornina" that guaranteed hospitality and religion freedom to the immigrate people (mainly Turkish and Hebrew),the number of inhabitans become 10 times (about 8000 in the 1600). After finished the Porto Mediceo construction by Cosimo II (1618) become an actractive place to live. In the second World War the Germans destroyed all the harbor structures and the industries of Livorno. Architecture and art In the XVI and XVII centuries, the Medici decided how to develop the city. Cosimo I started to build a channel that connected Livorno to Pisa; in the 1590 Giovanni de' Medici and the Buontalenti carried out the Fortezza Nuova
(joined to the Fortezza Vecchia),
by A. da Sangallo the Young ).
After the second World War, only few building of the XVI century
have been preserved: The cathedral (by A. Pieroni,
1581-95);
the Ferdinando I monument, with the statue of the duke by P.
Bandini (1595)and the Quattro Mori
in bronze by P. Tacca (1625) on the bottom;
the Annunziata (1605) and Concezione (1599) churces
by Pieroni. The Cisternone (1829-42) and the Cisternino are very important
neoclassic works by P. Poccianti. The Civic Museum Giovanni Fattori contains
works by macchiaioli toscani.Libraries: The Biblioteca labronica The Biblioteca Labronica F. D. Guerrazzi, founded in the 1816, opened to the public in the 1840 and become property of the municipality in the 1852, has about 300.000 books and 540 hand-written. Very important the "fondo foscoliano" (52 hand-written by Foscolo); Important also the autographs by Guerrazzi and Marradi and the "autografoteca Bastogi" (56 thousand pieces). The library was one of the first in Italy to automatize their services. The provincia The provincia of Livorno (20 municipalities; 1213 km2; 342.130 inhabitans.) has both a continental and island part. The island (the main island of the Arcipelago Toscano), are: Gorgona, Capraia, Elba, Pianosa, Montecristo and some other small islands. The continental part, starts from the Arno area and goes until the Piombino promontory. In the internal part is delimited by Pisa and Grosseto. The terrain has very small hills; the main plains are near the Cecina e Cornia river's estuaries. The coast is high and indented in the north, low and uniform in the center and in the south where there is the Piombino promontory. The clima is nice with fresh summer and tame. The rain quantity are between 600 e i 900 mm/year. the population is growing very fast because of the job availability. The agricolture is mainly made by cereals, vegetables, fruit, olives and grapes for wine. Another important activity is fishing. |
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