Before I start describing what our Wednesday in Ravenna was like, I thought I'd upload a picture of the elevator in the building where the B&B is located - because it's quite typical of what we've encountered Italy:
Elevators are often tiny, and this particularly old-fashioned one has doors you have to open and close yourself. Imagine what it was like with both of us in there, plus a few bits of luggage. Yeah, we used the elevator exactly once. Thankfully, the B&B and its rooms were on the first floor, so there were just two short flights of steps to navigate.
And now back to our regularly scheduled post...
The weather had been really nice Monday and Tuesday: sunny and warm. It was even more so on Wednesday. Our first stop of the day was a visit to the Basilica di Sant'Appolinare Nuovo (The New Basilica of Saint Apollinaris). It's the "new" basilica that was originally built as an Arian chapel in the 6th century (by our old friend Theodoric the Great; he did quite a lot of building in Ravenna), though it's been expanded and rededicated several times since then. Today, it's mostly empty except for its gorgeous mosaics, as well as a side chapel containing a war memorial:
The Magi bearing gifts; check out those leopard-print pants!
This mosaic allegedly depicts the Palace of Theodoric - see more on this below...
This probably started out as a picture of Theodoric, but was later modified to depict Emperor Justinian
War Memorial. The paintings around the chapel were quite interesting but the lighting was so poorly placed in there that I couldn't get any decent photos worth sharing.
On our way to our next stop, we walked by the ruins of the Palace of Theodoric. Sadly, the entrance gate was closed and locked for the day, so we were unable to wander through (we checked back the next day, only to find we were too late; it's open only a few days a week, for a few hours at a time). Too bad: there are some preserved parts of the mosaic floors on display inside that we'd like to have seen.
We kept walking down Via Roma to our next stop of the day: the Basilica di Santa Maria in Porto, not far from the Porta Nuova, and next to an art museum. This church houses the Greek Madonna, a bas-relief sculpture piece that supposedly floated into the port, along with two angels, one day back in 1100 (why the angels didn't just carry it - it doesn't look all that heavy - I do not know. I guess the water didn't hurt it any though).
Greek Madonna - none the worse from her swim from Constantinople to Ravenna all those years ago
Probably the two most interesting things in the church
We had our lunch at an outdoor café on the piazza, and here discovered a new favorite: the piadina. It's a kind of regional flatbread used for sandwiches. We can buy it in Molise, but the so-called "piadina" here is much thinner (more like a tortilla) than what you will be served in Ravenna. The real thing is thick without being heavy, yet soft and chewy. It makes for the most perfect Italian-style ham and cheese sandwich ever. And the local pigeons love it too, apparently, because we had a small flock of them nearby searching for unattended sandwiches. We saw them land several times on the table of a couple seated nearby, boldly snatching crumbs right off their plates as the pair were eating. I wish I had gotten pictures of that - but I was too busy laughing.
The bread of the gods
About 10 seconds after I took this picture, this bird tried yet again to steal some of that woman's food. Made me think of the sea gulls in Sea Isle City
I think this one was threatening to come steal our food, but by this time we were finished eating, anyway. He was welcome to the crumbs. Not that we left many - those sandwiches were sooooo good!
After our very satisfying lunch, we set off to find Dante's Tomb. It was actually quite close - about a two-minute walk. Dante is a BIG deal here in Ravenna; his poor bones have been moved around several times since his death, to hide them from the Florentines, the French, and the bombs of WWII. The area in which the tomb is located is referred to as the Zona Dantesca, around which is imposed a "Zone of Silence."
The last line of the Latin inscription makes reference to Florence, the city of Dante's birth from which he was exiled, as an "unloving mother" - this is Ravenna's "F-You" to Florence on behalf of its beloved poet
Where they hid his bones during WWII to avoid the bombs
Just to show you what a Big Deal he is: There are signs like this with passages from the Divine Comedy on buildings all over the city
Our last sightseeing stop of the day was the Museo Nazionale di Ravenna, located in a former monastery near San Vitale. It's an interesting collection of ancient artefacts and art, mostly covering Ancient Rome through the medieval period. It's one of those places you could spend half a day wandering through.
In the courtyard
Funerary monument
This was a display about alchemy, pharmacology, and poisons, I believe
From the ivory collection
I thought this Madonna's face looked a bit like my Grammy
Old guest book: Hermann Hesse was here
After a return to our B&B for a little rest, we had dinner at a restaurant located about a minute's walk from the B&B called 'Na Fraschetta. I'm given to understand that "fraschetta" translates to "a vine" or, perhaps, "a little vine" in Roman dialect. Their menu is based on cuisine typical of Rome and its surrounding region, not the classic fare of Ravenna or Emilia-Romagna, which made for an interesting change. Our server here was very nice - unlike the waitstaff who served us the evening before, she even let me order my own dessert! It was a great way to end our day.
Tonnarelli cacio e pepe for me; bucatini amatriciana for Paolo
We were not forced to share dessert here!