Postcard from Ravenna, Part 2 Ferrera.

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Ferrera seemed to be close and there was a trip organised by the school. Nobody showed up. So on the Sunday, I went by myself, a 4.90 euro train trip. I managed to stamp the wrong ticket, and get all the times of the return trains wrong. That didn't stop it being a most memorable visit.
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> Ferrera is consistently voted into the top 3 most liveable cities in Italy. It is not hard to see why. It has about 130,000 inhabitants, and all of them ride bicycles. This city doesn't have car parks, it has bicycle parks. This is the city with the most bicycle journeys undertaken by its inhabitants. It is walkable, surprisingly touristfree, and for any event likely to draw a crowd, free buses are laid on. On the 3rd Sunday in September, there was a Hot Air Balloon festival, a Mediaeval market and a Food Fair in the public park. (Apparently, the Buskers' Fair in August is Huge) It was the first day of an exhibition of painting from the period when the city was ruled by the Este (aystay) family. There were balloons, but the food fair with stalls of boar sausage, and bread loaves the size of tables, a 100 different cheeses and pastries....don't mention the pastries...honey...dried fruit, was too tempting and I wandered from stall to stall, buying cheese and eating pork. The medieval market was a place of handmade armour and heralds waving and throwing large flags on poles in the air, of ladies with long, long hair and comedians in poet's shirts and tights...and yes, Italians DO have the world's best behinds! I dragged myself away to go to the Pinacoteca in the 'Diamond' palace, this is just the pyramidal shape of the bricks, the artworks are the real diamonds here. The Este family, in power 1200 to 1600 were very artistically inclined and collected paintings, one 'natural' son was a painter, a very good portrait artist. The Este built the city and it is all of a single style. Their castle, a huge red brick structure, surrounded by a moat, dominates the city today. Ludovico il Moro had a palace here too...his main power base was Milan, of which he was Duke for 20 years from 1479. The most interesting museum-palace is called the Palazzo Schifanoia (built 1477)which was a play away from home palace for the Este. It is the one palazzo NOT dominated by religious art. But it has the most amazing frescoed salon, (Dei Mesi) a huge room with paintings depicting the seasons on 3 walls are very well maintained, but those of the fourth wall have been lost. The end wall has the best frescos, those by Francesco Cossa, who is most famous for his portrait of a young man offering a ring. These frescos are the months of Spring and border on lewd, but the clothes are detailed, and the girls and youths beautiful, the whole a complete and astounding concept not to be missed.
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> I went into the city and quite by chance saw a dance exhibition in front of the Cathedral, of costumed Garibaldi era dancers, letters from Garibaldi to his wife were read out, and the crowd stopped the buses passing...there was another market of handmade goods and herbs....this is a small city of wonders.
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> I spent so long wandering around that I missed the last train and took one to Bologna, hoping for a connection, but I only met up with some condescending Poms...who thought I was very brave...why? Because I am as old as their mothers? They seriously, but unintentionally, annoyed me. They were on exchange with the University of Bologna, they had A level Italian, but it wasn't brilliant. Piss-artists!!
> I ended up missing the connection and sleeping in a nice hotel, leaving at 5.30am to be back in Ravenna for my Monday morning class. My adventures caused a good laugh in class.

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