Halloween in Ravenna

While we are sorry to miss the Hip Hop Halloween in Chioggia, Ravenna has been great.  Not many activities for adults but there are some things for i bambini, which is quite a change from 10 or even 5 years ago.

If you look carefully you can seem some of the bubbles that were drifting all around the street from a bubble machine in an apartment above the store.

We spent the day seeing the sites we missed in the last two days and enjoying the unseasonably warm weather (about 60 F).  We were in lightweight short sleeve shirts, but the Italians obviously think it is a lot colder than we think it is--most people were wearing sweaters or jackets or sweaters and jackets.  There was a rally in the Piazza del Popolo near our B&B which was quite interesting, although there seemed to be more police, army and navy than protesters.  As far as we could tell, it was a protest about excessive bank charges and interest rates and a call for a strike against banks.

Navy guys waiting for the protest to start

We visited the tomb of Dante Alighieri today.  Dante was a Tuscan, but he was convicted of fraud and baratry in Florence and had to flee the city, leaving wife and kids behind.  He ended up in Ravenna where he was praised and honored, and, ultimately, buried.  However, a century or so later, Florence wanted him back and the Pope sided with Florence.  The wily monks hid Dante's bones in the church of San Francesco where they remained for about 3 centuries, until they were rediscovered and placed in a sarcophagus in front of the church--oddly, they are not in the fancy mausoleum erected nearby in his honor.

 Nancy inside the Dante Mausoleum, and Tom in front of the Mausoleum

Above is a painting of Dante.  After the mausoleum and the church, we visited the Dante museum (mostly in search of a bathroom, but it was a nice stop).  In addition to a LOT of information about Dante, there was an adjacent exhibit about modern mosaics, some pictures of which are left and below.  I don't think the 5th century artists have to worry about being outshined by the current mosaics.
 

              Courtyard at the Dante museum--I think the statues are supposed to be the young Beatrice and young Dante.   Dante supposedly met Beatrice when he was only 9 years old.

While wandering around town and searching for more sites, we saw the leaning tower of  Ravenna (named by us).

                          We stopped to have our first gelato of this trip to Italy--hard to believe we held out this long!  Delicious.

 Lampone and pistachio gelato

We also visited the Domus di Tappeti di Pietra, which has  the only non-religious mosaics in Ravenna.  When they excavated the site, they found levels going back to 200 A.D.  The mosaics from the 6th century floor  are on display.

                                                               mosaic hopscotch!

Tom explores his feminine side at the Domus dei Tappeti

                                 Exterior of San Apollinaire

 Flooded floor of San Francesco--the current water level is about 3 feet above where it was when the church was built.  Goldfish swim around there now.

We ended up the tourist day with a visit to the Basilica di San Appolinaire Nuovo, which has some of the best preserved mosaics.  My camera battery expired, so you are spared pictures of them. . We made our weary way back to the B&B with a stop at the Coop supermarket for necessary supplies for a quiet night in.  Tomorrow, on to Bologna..

Mosaics, mosaics, and yes...more mosaics

Breakfast on the first floor (second floor by American standards and 2 long flights of marble stairs above our ground floor suite) was much better than the usual fare and, halfway through, Fabio, the manager, brought in a piece of homemade cake with a candle for one of the other guests who turned 71 today.  The guest, who turned out to be from New York not Minnesota which was our private guess when we saw him with his wife, was amazed they knew it was his birthday, but of course it was on his passport which hotels are legally required to copy when you register.  He shared his cake with us, it was delicious despite the candle which could not be blown out no matter how hard he tried.

Then it was off to see some of the 4-6th century mosaics which are Ravenna's chief claim to fame.   There are 8 UNESCO world heritage sites here, 7 in the city and another 2 miles away.  This morning we visited the Basilica St. Vitale, the neonian baptistry (not some form of the word neonate as I hypothesized but named for Bishop Neon from the 2nd century), the episcopal museum, and the mausoleum Galla Placida.  These all date back to around 400-472 when Ravenna was the capitol of the Western Roman Empire and are considered to mark the transition from late Roman to Byzantine art.  The mosaics are truly awe inspiring.  The following photos don't do them justice but may give you some idea (no flash allowed so the colors don't pop like they do in person).

Basilica St. Vitale

Baptistero Ariani (Neon baptistry)

Of course we also had to stroll around the area and stop for piadini for lunch, a Ravenna tradition.  Piadini are basically sandwiches made on a flat unleavened bread, kind of like naan, and pressed in a pannini press.  Very tasty and cheap.

Tom in front of the entry to Basilica St. Vitale

Basilica di San Vitale exterior

Another entry in the Nancy reading series

Piazza Arcivescovado

Neon baptistry exterior

Tom thinking about getting baptized or just jumping into the font

Detail from ceiling in baptistry (the fact that Jesus is shown without a beard and his genitals are barely covered was seen as part of the Arian heresy that Jesus was descended from God and was  human.  Ravenna was the site of the big feud between the two branches of thiknking that lead to the Nicean counsel and resulted in, among other things, the creating of the "Apostle's Creed" a prayer memorized at least until the 1960s  by Catholic schoolkids

Entry to the museum, no photos allowed inside.

Prosciutto, aruguloa, and formaggi piadino

Tom emjoying a piadino and a beer

Serving lady outside restaurant

just a building I liked

everybody rides bikes (and smokes and texts while riding!)

Typical Ravenna shopping street.  The lighter paved area is the bike lane

They are starting to celebrate Halloween in Italy!

Back 'home' in front of Casa Masoli.   Time for siesta before passegiata, a glass of prosecco at a sidewalk cafe, and then cappellotti en brodo, a local specialty, for dinner.  Buon appetito!

Casa Massoli in Ravenna

Tuesday we got up at 6:00 (very difficult for those of us unaccustomed to using an alarm clock) and caught the bus to to train station to head to Ravenna, a small town about 1.5 hours away by car.  The bus, which runs on no apparent schedule (and for which no schedule is available) didn't come for so long we were afraid we would miss the train.  However, it was still at the tiny Chioggia station (which doesn't sell tickets, you have to find somewhere else to buy tickets--that is a whole other story) and we made it with a minute to spare.  We had to change trains in Rovigo (the only station the Chioggia train goes to) and again in Ferrara.  Unfortunately, the Rovigo train pulled into Ferrara 5 minutes late and we missed the connection and had to wait 3 hours for the next Ravenna train.  While larger than the Chioggia station, there really isn't anything to do at the Ferrara station, but it did have a pannificio with delicious brownies, so all was not lost.  Eventually, 7 hours after leaving our apartment, we arrived in Ravenna.  It was amazingly warm (22 C) and felt like summer.  It was an easy walk to our B&B, Casa Masoli, past numerous historical sites.  The B&B is incredible!  Huge room, huge bathroom, a vaulted brick ceiling, beautiful tile floors, all in a palazzo from 1600.

Part of the bathroom

still the bathroom

Now, off to see the mosaics!

A morning at the police station

Today we took the bus 'downtown' for our appointments at the questura (police station)  for our permesso di soggiorni.  They were very helpful, possibly because our declaration of residence was signed by Luisa, Lisa's mom, who worked at the Chioggia station for 20 years and has a lot of friends there!  We needed an additional proof of income, which we had on the computer but couldn't print and they put it on a flash drive, then printed it for us.  Then they went through a complicated series of pictures, fingerprinting (impronta) and more fingerprinting (in the basement which felt like being in prison--the questura is in a very old building in the center of town).  The officer who did the second set of fingerprints told us the wife of the captain is an American from Florida and asked if we kinew her, then called her and told her 2 Americans were getting a 1 year permesso.  Turns out she is actually from Pittsburgh.  Even though we kept telling the officers that we were born in Tacoma, Washington  and Seattle,Washington  respectively, they clearly thought we meant Washington DC and I am afraid the forms they filled out may have this incorrect information.   I wanted to take a picture of Tom being fingerprinted, but it seemed like that might not be a good idea, so I controlled the impulse.  Since our appointments were on market day, we walked back through the open air market, buying such essentials as a loofah and a bathmat before getting on the bus home, stopping first at the cafe near our apartment to use the internet to figure out how to get the codice fiscale which we have to obtain and return to the questura in a few days.

Tom reading the Seattle Times on the kindle at our cafe

Videos of the Chioggia Concert and and a day trip to Venezia

Apparently the videos were too large for blogger, so I used a program to make them smaller--hopefully this will work now.

Yesterday we took the bus to Venezia.  Only a little over an hour and 5.50 to get there, but the bus was hot and packed!  Sadly, you can't take the train from Chioggia to Venezia, but motion sickness is a pretty small price to pay for a day in Venezia.  We arrived at Piazzale Roma and caught the traghetto to San Marco.  I was lucky to have a seat in the front with a great view, and of course had to indiscriminately snap photos of everything that looked interesting!  Here are a few scenes from the grand canal.

Guys doing construction work from a boat

Bridge of Sighs

We went to the Correr Museum which is near the palazzo ducale because Tom loves museums with local history and the local history of Venezia is a lot more interesting than that of, say, Tacoma.  The biennale of modern art is going on this year and there was modern art interspersed with the antiquities which was interesting.  A room full of 4th century busts and, overhead, an installation piece of a large black bag that inflated at random intervals, then spun around and deflated...undoubtedly a commentary on the financial issues in D.C.  After the museum we headed to a nearby sandwich shop for lunch, before heading to the palazzo ducale.  We visited both places on earlier trips, but they bear repeating and it is quite different at this time of year.  I recall being packed into the palazzo like sardines when we last visited, barely able to see anything.  This time, even though it seemed like a lot of tourists after Chioggia where we never hear or see any other Americans, there were very few people in the museum or palace.  We were cringing at an obnoxious American couple speaking VERY loudly with annoying Texas accents complaining that there weren't any elevators in the 700 year old palazzo ducale, but then a French family came by and were even more obnoxious so we felt a little better and no longer felt like we should pretend to be Canadian.  No photos allowed in the museum, but here are a few from lunch and the palazzo as well as wandering around aimlessly:  Hopefully just the first of many day trips to Venezia while we are in Chioggia.

just

Angel weathervane , local lore is that the angel must  be a woman because she never lies

Tom buys lunch at the bar

 

See the large naked pink lady?  Part of biennale are exhibit.

Courtyard, Palazzo Ducale

Tom at palazzo ducale.

Gilded ceiling at palazzo ducale--real gold

Lamp with pigeons at San Marco piazz