Bill's Blog

Ravenna

Last Sunday we traveled to Ravenna by train. We walked a half-mile to an apartment we had rented for the week. I think it is the nicest apartment so far and the least expensive in Italy. We quickly got settled. Our last apartment in Verona had no washing machine, so the first thing we did was wash clothes. For Americans you should know that clothes dryers really don't exist in most places outside the USA. So, we put them on a drying rack. Due to overcast and cool temperatures they had to dry inside for several days.

Like I said, it was cool and overcast from Sunday to Wednesday. Still we walked to the center on Monday. The local information office provided us with a lot of useful information. We did not do much more on Monday. We visited the tomb of Dante. Yes, after Dante was exiled from Florence, this was his home ground. He was buried here and Florence has been trying to get his remains back ever since. We had lunch in a cafeteria. Then we visited a large, local, active church. Ravenna is world famous for the mosaics found in its churches. This church had a large number of pieces that had been moved to the church. They were all very good

Tuesday, we started by heading to the Tomb of Theodoric. As we made our way in that direction we passed by a large, old military fortress that had been turned into a city park. It was really very cool. We decided to skip the tomb and go to the Basilica of Saint Vitale and the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia. Here we found the most astounding mosaics on the floors, walls and ceilings. When you see the pictures, keep on telling yourself "These are mosaic and not paintings." And they are from the 5th and 6th century. We did a bit more walking where we were checking out some small churches and the courtyards that every Italian block has hidden behind their buildings. We tried a bit of the local specialty, cappeletti with ragu. So, tasty! Finally we went to a concert in a local theater. We think they were older students from a local university, but that is not for sure. Betty recorded one of the movements that they played from the Symphony in D major by Haydn and Solomon, which was the better of the two recordings. She also got two minutes from the Kegelstatt Trio (W. A. Mozart). Here are links to two recordings of what we heard. This link was the better piece. And here is a link link to the other. Please give a listen to them.

We really took Wednesday off, which was another cool overcast day. So, I will move on to warm and sunny Thursday. We visit a few more places in the center. We visited the Duomo of Ravenna. The Duomo was completed in the early 1700's. Then we visited the very old Neonian Baptistery, called the Baptistery Deli Ortodossi. Again the Mosaics were spectacular. We also visited a museum, whose contents mainly came from a church that collapsed three hundred years ago. After lunch we finally walked to the Tomb of Theodoric. The tomb is in a large public park so we took a break to rest and watch children enjoying the playground equipment.

Friday we did a day trip to Marina di Ravenna. This is a port about six miles from Ravenna that serves the city and the region around Ravenna. We took a walk in the woods. There was a problem with the trail. It was fenced so we could not cross to the main road unless we hiked to the next town. We had planned to go to a restaurant on the main road that was no more than 300 meters on the other side of the very high fence. Finally we came to an area that opened up into the woods. We headed toward the main road only to find backyard fences. Luckily one was low enough for us to get over it. We walked through their carport to a front yard gate. No, it would not open. So, up and over we went. Five minutes later we were on the main road and 100 meters from our restaurant. We ate a nice lunch and took the bus back to Ravenna.

Large Mosaic at Basilica of San Vitale

Posted by bill at October 29, 2016 01:37 PM