Ravenna: a friendship renewed among frescoes and mosaics

This post is another double size since we spent an overnight in this port. So settle in with a cozy beverage.

Lagoon outside Ravenna

Ravenna is known as “Little Venice”, but was there hundreds of years before Venice was built. It was probably built by the Etruscans around 700 BC. They drained the marshlands and constructed a complicated network of canals like in Venice, that also channeled water for farming. Ravenna is sinking as Venice is. Ravenna was a major port and capital for many years, but changes of fortune and the build-up of silt in the waterways brought its decline as the beach moved further away and filled the port.

Saturday morning in Ravenna

Ravenna was one of the highlights of my trip, partly for all the UNESCO World Heritage Sites to visit, but mostly because I got to spend time reconnecting with an old friend. After decades of being out of touch, we filled the two days with conversation, laughter, reminiscences, and new memories. And we walked A LOT.

Coffee on a brisk morning

On our first day, we met at the Nazionale Café in People’s Square for a morning coffee. The People's Square is the main square of the town, and there was a farmer's market set up for the weekend selling regional wares. 

Cheese, cheese everywhere

Almond cookies and marzipan

Porchetta sandwiches

Olives of every kind

After coffee, we wandered a bit until we made our way to the train station to catch the train to Ferrara, about an hour’s ride away.

Ferrara is a traditional Italian village in the Emilia-Romagna region. It’s full of Renaissance buildings. The town has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its beauty and cultural importance. We saw the Este Castle, one of the rare, moated castles that still has water in it. The castle was so much larger than I anticipated and fully restored. I could imagine the people going about their day’s work inside the walls.

Drawbridge to the castle

The fully functioning moat

Big Balls. Cannon Balls. Oh! And a puppy!

The castle well

Not sure what this bread is supposed to look like. Some type of insect I think.

Yummy Cappellacci!

We stopped at a little café for an afternoon break, where I tried the regional specialty, Cappellacci – so delicious! Shaped like a peasant’s hat, Cappellacci is a tortellini-like pasta filled with butternut squash, served with a light meat type sauce. We sat outside and people-watched as we enjoyed our meal.

Benetton is alive and well in Italy

Ferrara Cathedral, dedicated to St. George

Another view of the castle

So many cuties to meet!

We walked all around, window shopped, and admired the scenery for the afternoon. Everyone was out enjoying the beautiful Saturday weather. I saw so many dogs walking their owners, and we had some delicious gelato (Stracciatella for me).

Gelato!!

Clean, quiet, comfortable Italian commuter train

We headed to the train station and back to Ravenna. Along the way I got to see that Italy has some of the same problems as the Long Island Railroad, as Italy has fare-beaters too! They handle them the same way, by putting them off at the next station.

Once back in Ravenna, we found an out-of-the-way café to enjoy some dinner (rigatoni with a cream sauce for me), and I caught the late shuttle back to the ship.

Ravenna at night

Day two, we met for a walking tour of Ravenna. Our guide, Marco, or Marco Pitt, brother of Brad Pitt, as I liked to call him (see photo), was so knowledgeable and excited to share all the art and history of the city. I really appreciated his passion for the subject which made the morning go very quickly. Mosaics and frescoes abound.

Mr. Pitt

First we went to Dante’s Tomb. Dante Alighieri is perhaps one of the most famous Italians, a poet, writer and philosopher most known for his work The Divine Comedy and The Inferno. He was born in Florence but was exiled as a heretic. He spent spent the rest of his life Ravenna. Florence tried to claim his body - first to burn his bones as a heretic, then to bury him in the cathedral with honors - but the custodians of the grave hid his bones in the church walls, and later returned them to his crypt where he remains today. 

Dante's Tomb

Our next stop was the Battistero Neoniano (The Baptistry of Neon) is the most ancient monument remaining in the city of Ravenna. It was partially built on the site of a Roman bath.

Outside the Baptistry

The Baptismal Fount

Ceiling mosaic of John baptizing Jesus, surrounded by the apostles

Sunday afternoon strolling

third on our tour was Basilica di Sant’Apollinare Nuovo, built by the Ostrogothic king Theodoric the Great, and has the largest mosaic area of the early Christian era. But after Theodoric was defeated by Byzantine emperor Justinian I, Justinian ordered the mosaics "edited" to remove any themes that were too overtly Arian or expressed the Theodoric's glory. (Research note: Arian theology asserts that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and that Jesus was begotten by God the Father before time was created and was not co-eternal with God the Father. So the Son of God is "God" in name only.) The Basilica was renamed again when the relics of Saint Apollinaris where brought to Ravenna for safety. 

The three kings offering gifts to Jesus

From what I can remember, a saint is offering their saintly crown to Jesus

Fresco on the ceiling over the altar - it looked so lifelike!

We moved on to the Basilica di San Vitale, an octagonal temple from the sixth century decorated in teh Byzantine style.

Beautiful joining of marble slabs to create a design

The detail was so amazing

Near the Basilica di San Vitale is the Mausoleao di Galla Placidia (Mausoleum of Empress Galla Placida) contains early Christian mosaics in the most beautiful glass paste in the world. The ceiling and walls are covered with some of the earliest mosaics in the city, dating back to the fifth century.

One of the alabaster windows in the crypt. They were often used in Byzantine and medieval churches.  The alabaster stone was sliced very thin to allow light to pass through. 

It was nice to have a translator on hand to manage all our interactions. The people were very nice and did try to speak English – which I appreciated – but it made life easier with my friend there.

After our walking tour we did some shopping at a local discount store so I could stock up on long sleeved shirts and sweaters. The weather has been quiet cool and not looking to get much warmer. We then headed to the train station again to grab a taxi to a nearby nature preserve where we got a private tour to see the wild flamingos that live in the lagoon nearby. 

The preserve is part of the Po River Delta Park system. The pine forest is over a thousand hectares, and was established by the monks of San Vitale around the year 1000 to grow stone pines for pine nuts and lumber. The area was also used for wintering sheep, cattle and horses when they were brought down from the mountains. Once they stopped the cultivation of the pine forest, the area gradually resumed more native growth of the Po plain forest.

A friend who lives in the caretaker's cottage at the reserve.

Funky shelf mushrooms that can be burned for fuel

Our guide and his young assistant were so fun and knowledgeable about everything around us. Their enthusiasm was contagious.

Pine trees still scatter the area

We passed some local women picking plants and our guides explained that the locals come by the pick herbs for their family’s use. They showed us several varieties, including chervil, geranium, dandelion, ash tree, elm tree. My friend’s Google translate was in overdrive since our older guide only spoke Italian, his young apprentice had a little English, and my friend didn’t know all the technical term translations. We got into a rhythm with it and it worked out just fine. By the end I could understand a little of what they were saying without translation.

Pale pink flamingos in the back along the shoreline, seagulls in the foreground

Flamingos up close through the looking glass

Once we got to the lagoon, we saw white herons, terns, seagulls (with pale pink chests), swans, mallards, swallows, sparrows, and the flamingos we were searching for. They were all so pretty! Our guides brought along a powerful telescope in addition to our binoculars so we could see everything up close.

White heron taking flight

As we walked we passed these fishing huts where people would come to scoop fish out of the lagoon channels. The mosquitoes were out in full force. I sprayed myself down a few times and walked away with only one bite, so the repellant was a success.

This fishing hut was called Peacock Island, because the illegal resident had released 

wild peacocks all over the place

We called for a taxi back to town. Our driver on the way to the reserve gave us a number to call and explained that he dropped a pin on our location in a WhatsApp taxi drivers' group chat so the other driver could find us. And the new driver called to let us know that he was on his way. I was so impressed – I had not experienced that in New York, for sure!

My knees did not want to bend anymore, so the taxi took me back to the ship, then my friend to her place in town. It was a sad parting with a few tears, but it was wonderful to reconnect and we are planning our next meeting soon.

After I got back on board I found out that there was a big windstorm in the Adriatic Sea, and the captain had decided we would skip the next two ports and go straight to the third port, Montenegro. I was sad to miss Slovenia and Croatia, but we’d had a difficult time docking in high winds in Jordan, so I understood. The captain doesn’t make these decisions lightly – in addition to disappointing the passengers, it also throws off crew and entertainers joining and leaving, as well as supply restocking.

We stayed another night in Ravenna and headed out at a slower speed in the morning, hoping to avoid the worst of the storm. The ship was rocking and rolling most of the time, and people took their seasick tablets. I, knock wood, did okay, it was just a bit difficult to walk the ship without being tossed from side to side. It’s still better than a day at the office.