We had booked a return trip to the airport with the same water taxi that had brought us to the hotel and took us around town. It turned out to be a very convenient way to arrange everything. The parking at the airport was free and the trip to and from the city was easy and efficient. Thus we were soon back in the car and headed south towards Ravenna. We had decided to take some of the more scenic side roads to our destination instead of the more efficient autostrada and, for the most part, our decision worked out. There were a few too many towns and the speed limit seemed to fluctuate every kilometer, but it definitely allowed us to see a little more than just the road in front of us and the walls of the highway. Granted, this portion of Italy is not very scenic. It remains quite industrial, with large factories and shipping lanes running along the coast. As we got closer to Ravenna we peeled off the road into one of the small towns to try and find some supplies. It turns out that at this point the coast just becomes one big beach resort, and it seems that everyone in this part of the country was there, taking advantage of the gorgeous weather.
It was either that or a zombie apocalypse, because the streets of Ravenna were empty. We had no trouble navigating the town and getting to our hotel, a nice little Best Western located smack-dab in the middle of the historical city centre. We parked the car, set up our hotel room and hit the town ready to be enthralled by its mosaic-y goodness.
We stopped first for lunch at a quaint little place called Ca' de Ven, or house of wine. It was floor to ceiling bottles of wine and served the local specialty called piadina. These are flatbreads filled with cheese or salami and they are ridiculously good. They look small, but they pack quite a punch. We were back out on the street with full bellies in no time at all. Our first impressions of Ravenna were quite good. It was dead quiet. We were unsure if that was because it was Sunday, or because it was a particular time of the day - shops here open for a bit in the morning, close after lunch, re-open in the late afternoon and stay open until the evening. We weren't complaining. Having just experienced the raving hordes in Venice it was nice to have some 6th century monuments all to ourselves.
We started at the Battistero Neoniano, a small building outside of a larger church. Once your eyes adjusted to the darkness inside, they then quickly proceeded to pop right out of your head. The mosaic on the ceiling was absolutely one of the most beautiful works of art I have ever seen. It was stunning. The colours and the design, the addition of shadow and light all gave it a life that you just don't get from frescos or paintings. I think that was the longest time we spent in such a small building.
Right next door to the Baptistry was the Episcopal Museum. It housed a lapidarium of old, inscribed marble slabs from the first millenium. It had some paintings and other historical items, but by far the most impressive displays were the marble throne, the silver cross and St. Andrew's chapel. The throne was from the 6th century and was covered in ivory panels, intricately carved with stories from the bible. The silver cross was a few feet high and wide, also covered in carved panels. St. Andrew's chapel was where the local bishops would go by themselves to pray 1500 years ago. It was covered in mosaics of rich blues and yellows with many saints and the apostles all present. That room alone made the trip into this blast furnace of a museum worthwhile. I don't lodge the criticism of a place being too hot lightly, especially when there may be scientific reasons to keep a room and its contents warm. But we passed a thermostat on the way out and it was set to 27 C! It meant we were definitely not sticking around to try and translate every Italian label on every exhibit.
I think I may take this opportunity to digress a little bit back on to the idea of Ravenna as a vacation destination. Number one: don't come here if you don't like mosaics. They are everywhere and the most likely reason for going into any particular place. There may be a lot of history here, but it plays second fiddle to the artistry of the mosaics. Secondly: this is not a tourist town in the same way Florence, Venice and Rome are. There are no English translations for a lot of the museums and you won't find a lot of fluent locals. You don't have to speak fluent Italian to get by, but it sure would increase your enjoyment of the city. On the other hand, that lack of tourist traffic means you can really get into a lot of places quite easily and that there are an abundance of opportunities to see how the locals live, eat and get around. And on that last point, I bring up another plus point for Ravenna, an almost complete lack of traffic. The centre of town is imminently walkable and the other major form of transportation seems to be bicycle.
Back to our travelogue. We were off in search of the tomb of Dante Aligheri, which I could swear we had also seen in Florence. We found, instead, the Crypta Rasponi, a small subterranean crypt with, you guessed it, a nice mosaic floor. It was well presented, but the true value of visiting was to go through the gardens to the rooftop terrace and take in the summertime views. We did eventually find Dante's tomb, but it was underwhelming to say the least. Having been at least a good 15 minutes without seeing a mosaic, we decided to go into the TAMO, a mosaic museum which did a good modern take on the history and science of mosaic-making. It was a nice new place, with touch screens giving you all sorts of information - like what sorts of skills and trades were required to generate mosaics in ancient times. There were grand examples of mosaics and even a temporary exhibition where artists took other artists paintings of themes from Dante's Divine Comedy and turned them into mosaics.
We crossed town to get to the next venue, Basilica di Sant'Apollinare Nuovo. Another oasis of mosaics was found there, this one created by Goths. It was an amazing representation of saints on one side of the church and women on the other, all proceeding from the seaside towards the church.
Because we still had not seen enough mosaics, we stopped at another Battistero, this one much smaller and tucked in behind some other buildings. It's small size and complete lack of surrounding infrastructure meant that the mosaic ceiling there was only magnificent, instead of stupendously magnificent.
We walked back to the hotel, past the crooked civil tower, which made us wonder why people make such a big deal about the leaning tower of Pisa. Half the towers in this city are leaning one way or another. Is it just because Pisa's is fancier?
We found a good local place for dinner called Babaleus. I think we were the only non-Italians there. We had a a great new started for us, a chunk of mozzarella wrapped in prosciutto and then grilled. Bad for the heart, we know, but oh so good for the stomach. We had some good entrees as well, but watched with some distress as the locals all seemed to be ordering pizzas. It looks like we will be going back to get a better sample of the local favourites.
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