Ravenna the Second

"The heat makes it hot"

- Marco, delirious from our first not-cold day in Italy

It seems that maybe Celestino was right and that it actually does get hot in Italy! Today was the first day of holiday where we didn't wear our single, solitary sweater that we each brought to Italy (note: mine smells great after 14 days of near-continuous wear). It was about 28 here but dry - quite comfortable for aggressive touring.

We saw a lot today so we're just going to hit the highlights! Before we start with cultural stuff, let me just say: if you want to shop, come here. There is great stuff and a lot of designer stores. You could easily spend an entire day just going from debt to debt.

As a warm-up before Serious Touring, we saw the basilica of St. Francis, which has a permanently flooded crypt directly under the altar (there are fish):

We also walked by the torre del pubblico dating from the 12th century, which leans even more than the tower of Pisa:
Oddly, there is square here dedicated to JFK (the sign is more interesting than the square, which is basically a parking lot):

And the unexpected finding of the best store on the trip, so far:

Despite all the interesting stuff here, Ravenna is, above all, a city of mosaics. Its churches and walls possess the best examples outside Istanbul of mosiac art dating from the 5th and 6th centuries.

For anyone not down with crafts, mosaics are created by assembling small pieces of coloured glass, stone or other material on a two-dimensional surface to create a pattern or picture. It's like gluing macaroni on a tissue box, but more complicated and with a better result. Generally, the pieces that are glued are small and cubic. Here's an example of mosaic from the "Palace of Theodoric" dating back to the 8th century:

These examples are from some of the other sites we visited (below) and show the incredibly detailed work typical of mosaics here. (You'll want to click to embiggen all the pictures from here on!)


Now that you smell what we're cooking in the mosaic department let's get down to business. All of the upcoming pictures show mosaics, even though sometimes you can't see the individual stones that make up the piece. We think you'll agree: Ravenna took the macaroni/tissue/glue-gun concept to unbelievable heights!

First on the mosaic route was the Battistero Neoniano. It is essentially an octagonal baptistry (place where people got baptized) in a round-ish room built in the 5th century. There's the baptismal tub:

This is the ceiling directly above the baptistry showing Christ and the 12 apostles. The audio guide said it looks as if the apostles are "moving to music". Dudes. Jesus' homies knew how to party, even in a baptistry.

Next stop: the Basilica of S. Apollinare Nuovo. The walls of the nave of this giant church are completely covered in mosaics:

A detail:
Next on the tour we learned that appearances can be deceiving. This is the outside of the Basilica of San Vitale:

Inside:
This octagonal domed church dates from the mid-6th century. The mosaics here are among the most celebrated in the Western world. What you're seeing in these pictures is the area above the altar - it was too massive to fit everything in one frame (that and there was no flash allowed, so I was forced to lean on whatever was around and couldn't get the angles perfectly). This photo shows the ceiling directly over the altar:

Unbelievable! Truly the highlight of the day (aside from the House of Yarn, of course.)

This 5th century mausoleum also doesn't look like much:

But inside contains some exceptional mosaics dating from antiquity. Popular tradition claims the cross-shaped structure houses the tomb of Galla Placida, sister of Honorius, Rome's last emperor. Galla, who died in Rome in AD 450, is one of history's most powerful women. She became the virtual ruler of the Western world after her husband, Ataulf, king of the Visigoths (not to be confused with the goths of today) died.




As you can see, a busy and mosaic-filled day.

Although we considered deviating yet again from the tabs of fun and staying here another day, we're going to push on to Ferrara tomorrow since we've essentially done all the main attractions and can't defy the ToF.

Our hotel there is in a converted monastery... in a pedestrian zone. Pray for us.