Livorno was perhaps the most frustrating of the Italian sites.  Our attempts to communicate in English, college French, and execrable Italian were fruitless; no one could direct us to the Villa Valsovano or the Gisbournes' Casa Ricci.  A day spent wandering through the hills of Montenero yielded little except the (admittedly magnificent) views Shelley would have had overlooking Livorno.

We did, however, enjoy one small victory, when we accidentally stumbled upon Byron’s magnificent (and well-hidden) Casa Rossi, now a private home.   From the top of Montenero, one takes the small descending road on the left (not the Via Byron) for roughly a half mile.  A bumpy, nondescript dirt road on the left--the first one encounters after leaving the town--leads to the still-elegant villa and its exquisite views of the surrounding countryside.  One may quibble with Byron's morals, but the man certainly knew how to live.