Magnificent Ravenna

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Geo: 44.4157, 12.1966

Ravenna is a city we have been to many years ago but this time we had a guided tour, which I can highly recommend as the guide pointed out stuff that we would most certainly have missed and she put it all into historical context.The city is mostly famous for its mosaics so the first place we visited was the Basilica of San Vitale, the patron saint of Ravenna. On the outside it is plain roman bricks but inside are spectacular mosaics both on the floor and on the nave. The marble columns were actually transported from Istanbul or Constantinople as it was then. Ravenna was a bit like Venice originally,in that it was just marshy land and a lot of the land has been reclaimed from the sea so it has a continual risk of subsidence. In the basilica is a water pool which is used to measure the amount of subsidence. If the pool fills they know that the building is sinking into the water table so they pump the water out. Close by is the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia who was the sister of Rome's last emperor. It is tiny but contains some beautiful mosaics. The story goes that Cole Porter came there and walked in from the bright sunlight into the dark interior and got the inspiration for the song "Night & Day". Another story is that Gustav Klimt came from Vienna and saw the beautiful gold on the mosaics which was then an inspiration for his paintings using a lot of gold. Who knows? We also visited the Tomb of Dante. Dante had to leave Florence for some misdemeanor and died in Ravenna. When he became famous the Florentines wanted to take his remains back to Florence. The people of Ravenna refused this request and every year there is a delegation of Florentines who come and ask for the bones back. They are refused so they bring some oil to keep the devotional flame in the tomb burning. Sounds a good excuse for a jolly to me. Finally we visited the Basilica of St Apollinare Nuovo for more beautiful mosaics before the journey back to the ship. On the way we passed the marshes and the fishing cabins and nets. You may have seen a programme on TV where one of these was visited by some famous Italian chef and the art historian Andrew Dixon-Wright. A bunch of guys go out to the wood cabins , lower the nets , catch a few fish and then cook them and have a few drinks- sounds a good way to spend an evening!
I am pleased to report that we won the daily quiz and also our first round of Team Trivia.

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