On our way to Croatia

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This morning we docked in Ravenna in Italy about 7.30am and Col and I were off the ship by about 8.30am for our tour. We were off to San Marino a medieval township which is an independant Republic and sits on the top of a mountain top. It was about 1.5hrs drive by bus from the township of Ravenna, it was wonderful as we drove up the hillside to see the turrets of the township sitting on top of the mountain.

It was like walking around a town that was in a timewarp, I loved every moment of it, this little republic is the 3rd smallest in the world and has their own coins and holds elections every four years to appoint their political decisionmakers, and if they dont like what they do they can change leaders within 6 months of the elections.

We walked up to the San Marino Basilica which was a lovely chapel half way up the township it was very different to the churches we have seen so far in Italy with all their amazing mosiacs however this church has been re built many centuries ago. As the township sits on the mountain top it did get bombed quite badly during the war. We wandered up many steps to get to the top of the mountain top and looked out over the view across the Italian country side absolutely stunning in fact quite breathtaking as you looked both left and right as far as the eyes could see. Divine, the weather was kind again today and we enjoyed being in the sun.

We had about 2 hrs free time to wander and Col and I thoroughly enjoyed wandering around the little shops and the little laneways and streets, it was wonderful. Alot of the shops had pixies and trolls in them, there was quite a theme going on. I couldnt resist and bought some pixies to bring home with us. I am not sure how we are going to get all these things home but oh well we will work that out next Tuesday when we are going to have to pack our bags for the trip home. Seems incredible to think that this time next week we will be in Dubai.. in the warm...

We travelled back to the city of Ravenna and visited an old church that had the most amazing mosiacs up over the alter, it was incredible, I have never been so amazed by mosiacs as I have been here in Italy in fact they have schools to teach you the art of mosiacs I think I might enrol in one..

The church was very old about the 5th century it still had examples of the old original mosiac floor. I dont think I have been in so many churches as I have been on this trip it isnt something that I tend to do however they have been glorious.

Yesterday at Trieste Col and I on our way back to ship decided we would call into a greek orthodox church and it took our breath away, it was stunning the paintings, the gold, the floor, the way it was decorated we both walked in and went WOW!!!!

Anyway back today, we spent quite a bit of time at the church and then we wandered around the township, Ravenna is really different to any other township we have been to in Italy it almost seemed like an English village they lived in houses and they had land around the houses which is the first time that we have seen that and we saw lots of young people today which is more than we can say we have seen in the previous three weeks. IN fact at one stage I did say to Colin you could base yourself in Ravenna and I can see how the families could use it as a retreat in summer as it has a sandy beach.

We tried to get into a couple of the very old churches in Ravenna that have been listed with UNESCO as they have original mosiacs in them but unfortunately many of them were closed. We did come across one that had an area that you could look into that showed the original floor level of the church which had original mosiac on the floor but it was flooded and as we looked closer there were gold fish in the water.... you never ever know what you are going to find, it is all part of the adventure.

We caught the last shuttle bus back to the boat and have just enjoyed the most amazing food and are about to go and have a coffee, tomorrow we dock in Spilt Croatia and we are going to experience village life... We are being very well looked after Azamara cruises are quite incredible, small and personalable the food and facilities are amazing, we are both well, we are glad that tomorrow we dont leave the ship until 10.30am. We hope that you are all well in sunny Adelaide, missing you all but having loads of fun and taking loads of photos we have already filled up two 8 gig SD cards and had to buy another one in Venice.. Take care xxx

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