3/24-25: Thursday + Friday morning in Ravenna

Thursday 3/24 was (sadly) our last full day in Ravenna.  We started the day with a longish walk to see the Mausoleo di Teodorico.  I say it was a longish walk as it was about a 20 minute hike from our B&B to the park in which it is located.  On our way, we passed the ruins of Rocco Brancaleone, a medieval fort, before crossing a bridge that took us over the railroad tracks.  There was quite a bit of vehicle traffic, as our destination was located outside the centro storico, but fortunately there was a pedestrian walkway.  We opted not to visit the ruins; this will leave something to explore on a future visit:

The Mausoleum is located in a rather pretty, green park.  We discovered that one does need to purchase a ticket to enter the park; these are sold at the nearby gift shop (we were thankful indeed that is was nearby, as it was a very warm day and we did not relish the thought of having to schlep back into town for them).  The mausoleum consists of two levels, both of which are accessible to visitors.  There was only one other person there when we made our visit.  Pro tip:  Teodorico isn't actually here, only the broken porphyry bathtub they originally buried him in:

The mausoleum.  It's a bit of mystery as to how the builders installed the dome, as it is made of a single stone piece that weighs almost 300 tons

On the walkway around the upper level; there are exterior stairs to climb to reach this point; about 1/2 way around the other side is the entrance to this level's interior

Broken, empty bathtub. Not much else here.

What's left of the ceiling décor.

At some point after they scattered his bones, the mausoleum was converted to a church - or part of a church.  Not much evidence of this remains.

Part of the park, with presumably a war memorial in the distance, judging by the flag.

After this, we hied ourselves back to the historic town center, passing through one of the old city gates:

Porta Serrata, f/k/a Porta Anastasia

Our next stop of the morning was to see the Domus dei Tappeti di Pietra, the House of the Stone Carpets.  To access this site, we entered via the run-down, deconsecrated Chiesa di Sant'Eufemia (I didn't see any evidence that it's currently being used for services). 

Built in the 1700s (which possibly makes it among the "newer" churches in town), the exterior is still quite nice...

...the inside, not so much

Sign pointing the way to the archaeological exhibit in a water-damaged side chapel, which, incidentally could have been easily missed

Even this sad place had its bit of mosaic art

Funny how an absolute gem of an archaeological site is hidden away below this church.  Before you walk through, there is big display detailing the history and excavation of the site, which consists of layers ranging from ancient Roman through medieval times.  We spent quite a bit of time here admiring the mosaics and marveling at how much of the flooring is in such good condition after so many centuries:

The "Good Shepherd"

Look how the pattern doesn't "come out evenly" along the right-hand edge; it's like when you miscalculate when laying full floor tiles and have to cut them.  I wonder if that was poor planning on the part of the tiler, or whether the mosaic was designed this way purposely...?  

The "Four Seasons" depicted in the middle of this floor is actually a copy...

...as the original mosaic is displayed on the wall.  Poor Summer is missing.  At least I think that is the missing figure; kind of hard to tell which is which, really.

By the time we finished admiring the stone carpets, it was time to find some lunch.  We walked back to the Piazza del Popolo for some pizzas.  I think Paolo may have regretted his choice.  While we were eating, we had a chance to observe how the Poste italiane workers get around town to make their deliveries.

Paolo's pizza had "wurst" (which looked to me like those little hot dog rounds from a can of Spaghetti-O's) and French fries.  Ugh.  I suspect this wasn't what he had in mind when he ordered it.  Pizza pro-tip:  when in doubt, just order pizza Margherita, because it is the best pizza.

Postal worker making a stop at the Prefettura. I think these little electric vehicles are kind of cute!  

After lunch, we headed to the nearby San Giovanni Evangelista, a church that was originally built in the 5th century by Galla Placida, renovated in the Gothic style during the 1300s, bombed during WWII, and subsequently restored.  However, when we arrived, the gate was locked and there was a sign indicating it was closed for the week - not sure why.  Too bad; we were curious about it as the exterior, at least, is so different from the other churches in Ravenna we'd visited:

The Gothic portal remains despite the bombs.

Our final stop of the day took us back to the other side of town - about a 10-minute walk, anyway - to the Museo d' Arte della città Ravenna, or MAR, next door to the Santa Maria in Porto we'd previously visited.  This art museum, housed in a former monastery once connected with the church next door, houses collections ranging from the ancient to the contemporary.  Like several other museums we've visited, there is a designated "path" through the museum for visitors to follow.  Apparently visitors are meant to be Divinely Inspired as to exactly where the path begins and ends, because it certainly wasn't marked.  We discovered this when we followed the directions of the woman from whom we purchased the tickets, to go down the hall and take the elevator to the next floor - only to get yelled at by another woman upon arrival on said floor.  It turned out her colleague sent us to the end of the exhibits, not the beginning.  The angry woman sent for a third employee, who led us - practically at a run! - back through every room to the "beginning" and pointed us to the room where he indicated we should start our tour.  He watched over us as we perused the first few rooms, as if he didn't trust us to stick to the "correct" path.  Well, the intended route did make sense - the museum is arranged from oldest exhibits to the most recent works - but it would have been nice if we'd been sent to the starting point in the first place.  Or at least been given a map.  Still, it was a great way to spend the rest of the afternoon:

MAR, former home of some monks

San Paolo e San Paolo

Same subject; different artists

I was rather proud of myself to be able to identify St. Thomas Aquinas, Mary Magdalene, The Virgin and Child, St. Catherine, and St. John the Baptist.  But who on earth are the two musical Hobbits down in front???

Banksy!  Super cool.

Regarding this picture:  after Banksy, we took the nearby elevator down to the first floor (having originally entered on the ground floor - 0 - before being directed up to the 2nd floor), thinking that there were more exhibits.  As we soon discovered, we had once again entered a part of the museum where we were not supposed to be - we encountered a woman who informed us that the 1st floor was for employees only!  Really, signs in any language would have been most helpful here.

For Thursday night's dinner, we decided on a bit of a calorie (and euro) splurge with the fish tasting menu at Ai 45.  We'd originally thought to go there the evening before, only to learn that they're closed on Wednesdays.  It was worth the wait, for the most part:

Not only was the wall art in English, the background music was American soft rock hits of the late 70s through early 90s.  I spent much of dinner playing Name that Tune with myself.

The best things on this plate were the fried fish with a slightly spicy dipping sauce, and the grilled octopus

Before this plate, we had a dish of mussels, that I neglected to take a picture of - trust me, they were delicious.  These small clams reminded me of the little shells we find in Sea Isle City.

Ombrina - a kind of drum fish

I did not love the fried fish.  Specifically, I did not love the little bones in the fried fish.

Dessert: a cheesecake-like confection with a gooseberry on the side

The next morning, we had an early breakfast before packing up.  Check out time at the B&B was 10:30, we were told.  We made sure to be at the front desk at the appointed time, only to find that the owner wasn't there.  He wasn't anywhere in the building - he was already at his other job.  I had to call him via WhatsApp to ask him to come back and check us out.  Funny:  I realized that he never asked me for my credit card info when we checked in; we theoretically could have just disappeared without paying.  Not being assholes, we didn't do that, of course.

Our train wasn't scheduled to leave until shortly after noon, so we had some time to kill.  No problem, said the B&B owner - we were welcome to leave our bags there and retrieve them later, which we did after deciding to return to the main piazza for one last session of caffè and people-watching.   As we were walking down the street, we encountered a group of mostly young folks marching in protest as part of the Global Climate Strikes that were taking place around Italy that day:  here is a link to the video I took.  

After our coffees, we picked up our luggage and caught our train.  We crossed the Rubicon once again (heading in the proper direction this time) and returned to Termoli.  No issues with the parking this time; we finally figured out that there is in fact free parking at the train station - in the proper section located at the far end of the lot, in the white, numberless spaces.  It figures that we'd learn this toward the end of our time here.  But it will come in handy as I hope to squeeze in another adventure or two before we have to head back to the US at the end of April.