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Published: June 18th 2017
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Ravenna
Basilica di S. Apollinare Nuovo Six years ago we made a brief stop near the outskirts of Ravenna to view the wonderful mosaics in a basilica. When planning this trip we thought it would be a great opportunity to revisit the city and see more of its famous mosaics. We are staying about 35 km south of Ravenna so we made the short drive arriving about mid morning. Our reliance on Jane to find a suitable car park was really put to the test. The temperature was hovering around 30 degrees so finding a park close to the centre of town was important.
Once we found our carpark we headed off in the direction of the city centre. After walking about 10 minutes we asked an elderly gentleman if we were going the right way. No you need to turn right then left under the arch way and along an avenue of trees, or something like that. After a 30 minute walk, finding a sign pointing the way we were going, and then finding a sign pointing in the opposite direction, and a young man pointing in a third direction we decided time to go back to the car and check with Jane.
Nearly
Ravenna
Basilica di S. Apollinare Nuovo an hour of walking in the heat is not the way we wanted to explore Ravenna. Jane had a brilliant idea. Find a carpark near the Duomo. Why didn’t she think of this before. After battling closed roads and one way streets we found our new carpark. Hungry, hot, and weary it was time for lunch. After our two hour visit to Ravenna we didn’t have much to show for it. Next stop the Information Office for a map and further help on the mosaics. We needed to buy a tourist pass at one of the churches and this would mean we could view what we came see.
Our first stop was Basilica di S.Appolinare Nuovo. Amazing mosaics surround the upper walls of the basilica. Work continues to be undertaken in restoring parts of the building. From here we make a long walk to Basilica di S. Vitale and the Mausoleo di Galla Placidia. What we saw was worth the walk. In a word: amazing. There were many students taking the time to draw various aspects of the buildings. Our final walk took us to the Duomo near our car park. There are no mosaics in the Duomo but
Ravenna
Basilica di S. Vitale the tourist pass gives you the chance to enter the Battistero Degli Ortodossi and view the mosaics there.
By now we were shattered. Fortunately it was only a short walk back to the car. Has our trip to Ravenna been worth while? Definitely. Would we recommend purchasing the pass? Absolutely. The basilica we visited previously was Basilica di S. Appolinare in Classe, another worthwhile visit.
Something we were able to fit in while on our wanderings was to post a parcel back to NZ. This exercise really tested the Italian postal service and took about thirty minutes to conclude the transaction. Perhaps people don’t post parcels overseas from Italy. As for sending something to NZ, where is that?
Returning to our accommodation we stopped at an enormous shopping centre. We had some chores to do. A haircut. Check our phone credits. Turns out we only had one month plan and it had run out. No wonder Google maps couldn’t help us today. Now we know what all the Italian text messages were about. This time the assistant understood and could speak English. We should be set up until the end of August. Finally we needed an Italian
Ravenna
Basilica di S. Vitale adapter for our Italian electric kettle so it would fit the Italian socket. Now we can have more coffees in our room. Final task was purchasing some dinner, we decide on take home chicken and chips from the supermarket.
A big day, absolutely wonderful, exhausted. Tomorrow Padova.
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