Yesterday was day 2 of our last minute "Invade Italy, 2012" trip. We drove down in 8 hours, and are staying in our amazing hotel on the beach here in Rimini! Rimini is a funny town - it tried to be the Italian version of Ibiza, but with the clubs came lots of drugs and darker elements, so now, 20 years later the town is struggling to clean itself up. They have done an amazing job - this is the town we come to unwind in. The beach is gorgeous, and quite literally goes on for miles - the Adriatic Sea is breathtaking, and the food - well - the food is beyond anything most people can imagine. I am getting SO ahead of myself though. I am going to try and take this trip day by day - and maybe even more than that - as some towns deserve multiple entries on their own. For the life of me, I have never figured out how some guidebooks ignore this area completely, and others give it a mere page or two. . . I guess if you stick to just the tourist spots you could do that. We avoid those places :)
In the afternoon, we drove just a bit up the coast, and went to Ravenna. Ravenna is known by and large for two main things : BEAUTIFUL mosaics, and the tomb of Dante Allegheri I don't want to overload this blog with photos - so, choosing just my very favorites is my mission - one picture for each place - I will probably expand upon each place in a later post though, I was so amazed here!
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| Basilica di Santa Maria en Porto |
We started out in Ravenna, walking the Via Roma. There are street signs here, but they aren't always easily understood, so we figured the best way to find anything was to go on foot, and stay close. Thankfully, most of the major sights are well within easy walking distance (even with a 3 year old in tow). We parked by the Museum of Art, and off we went! We walked past the Basilica di Santa Maria en Porto - there were worshippers there, and I really do not want to bother someone in prayer. Pretty sure it's frowned upon.
We continued on our walk, down to the Basilica di Sant'Apollinare Nuovo. You know that saying good things in small packages? Well, the package was not small, but it was most definitely unassuming. It looked like a plain brick church from the front, not much special. Then, after you pay your 9.50 to enter (you buy a ticket that gives you access to 5 UNESCO World Heritage Sights, and is valid for 7 days) This is what we found INSIDE. . . The Basilica is STUNNING! The mosaics inside defy words - such artistry, so much love and time spent. My photos do not give any of it the justice it deserves!
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| Basilica di Sant'Apollinare Nuovo |
Next, we went to the Tomb of Dante Allegheri. After being pushed out of Firenze, Dante spent his days in hiding in Ravenna. Even after his death, the monks still hid his remains for a few hundred years before entombing him next to their monastery. At the end of this little alley, is the Tomb.
Inside of the tomb, if you look directly above your head, you will see a lit oil lamp. To this day, Firenze is still paying a pennance of sorts for their persecution of the author of "Inferno". The oil for the lamp in the tomb is provided by the city of Firenze every year.
When the Germans occupied Ravenna during WWII, Dante's remains were again put into hiding, as the monks chose to bury his body under a pile of soil and plants in the courtyard adjacent to the tomb, so that his remains could not be desecrated, or taken by the German soldiers.
Ravenna, as I said before is known for it's Mosaics. Not all Mosaics are on Cathedral ceilings. There are many artisans that do all kinds of amazing work there, from wall hangings, to dishes, to lord knows what else. As we were walking towards Dante's tomb, I found my favorite Mosaic piece. Apparently it is other peoples favorite as well, because they had to lock it down with the blue bicycle lock that you see attached to it!
From there we wandered around beautiful, if poorly marked streets, and found our way to what appeared to be a HUGE amazing church - surely, it was so big that it had to be part of what we needed to see! It wasn't! IT was huge, it was beautiful, but it was just the duomo (HA! Never thought I would say something was JUST a duomo) - the small, octagonal building next to it was what we were really trying to find. It was the Battistero Neoniano.
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| The Duomo - this is still very much an active church! |
Did I mention that the sun was out? The entire day was NOT warm, but we did have the sun! I miss the sun. In Germany, we are so far north that even if you were outside all day long, the sun is simply not strong enough for your body to begin to synthesize vitamin D at all! I LOVE VITAMIN D. This California Girl is seriously solar powered.
No wonder I love it down here in Italy. The climate here in Northern Italy is SO similar to what it is like where i grew up in Northern California - I always feel like a part of me is coming home when we travel down here!
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| The Duomo again, as seen from the Battistero Neoniano |
Originally built on a roman bath site, the battistero is actually over 4 stories, however 3 of those stories are now underground, and inaccessible to the average bear . Ah well, the one floor of it that we did get to see what amazing. The mosaics are otherworldly! And they even have a bronze cross on display from around 688 or so AD!
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The ceiling of the Battistero Neoniano. The scene is depicting Christ being baptised by John the Baptist - I think my favorite part of it, though is if you look off to the side of the centerpiece, you will see a man holding a cloth for Christ to wear - that man is actually the spirit of the river. Roman mythology meet Christianity! |
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| One of the alcoves inside the Battistero Neonian |
We thought we were leaving at this point. We really did. And then we saw it. We saw the Basilica di Sant'Apollinare en Classe.
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