Nov. 4, 2024
had rented a small sixth floor flat near the train station. It was clean and modern. We dropped our luggage and set out to explore Bologna. Our flat was about a kilometer from the center of town. All of the streets in the downtown area were covered by arcades. It was very urban and very grand. We headed for the two towers in the center of town. Along the way, we stumbled across the cathedral which wasn’t even included in my guidebook. It was impossible to photograph the exterior because of the arcade, but the interior was impressive. The inlaid marble floor was especially notable.
diverted elsewhere, resulting in an entire internal aisle never being constructed. It is said that Martin Luther became so disgusted with the project’s financial recklessness that he turned against the Catholic church. Finished or not, San Petronio is a beautiful church. We arrived as the sun was setting and the lighting within was very atmospheric. We couldn’t see much of the artwork but we did get to observe the astronomer Gian Domenico Cassini’s 67 meter long meridian set into the floor of the church.
When we came out of the church, the other buildings around the Piazza Maggiore had been lit. It was such an attractive sight that we decided to stop for a glass of wine in a cantina off the piazza. We had intended to eat dinner on the way home, but just ended up stopping into a grocery store and picking up some munchies to take back to our flat. It was nearly 20:00 by the time we got to eat. The rest of the evening passed quickly, planning our next day’s itinerary before I retired to my room to write.
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| San Giacomo Maggiore |
Nov. 7, 2024
Casa Manu, Ravenna, Italy
We spent our second day in Bologna making a pilgrimage from church to church. It was election day in the United States and my American friends and I were all on edge. I am not a religious person, but I felt a need to pray for my country. After a quick breakfast in our apartment, we set off for San Giacomo Maggiore, our first church of the day.
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| San Giacomo Maggiore Interior |
San Giacomo Maggiore is a Romanesque-Gothic church begun in 1267 and consecrated in the late 15th century. Its patrons were the Bentivoglio family and their chapel was the most richly decorated. Two large, glass sculptures of poppies graced the plaza in front of the church. From there, we wound our way across central Bologna, past the two leaning towers, to the Piazza Santo Stefano. Navigating in Bologna is both graced and complicated by the ubiquitous porticoes covering every sidewalk. They are wide and often elaborately decorated, but make it difficult to see landmarks or signs.
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| The Piazza Santa Stefano |
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| Church of the Crucifix |
The Piazza Santo Stefano is Bologna’s prettiest piazza,
with alternating lawns and cobblestoned walkways.
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| Tomb of St. Petronius |
The Basilica di Santo Stefano is part of a complex of four (originally seven) conjoined medeival churches. The complex is entered through the eleventh century Church of the Crucifix, a smallish church distinguished by its altar raised above the nave so as to allow space beneath it for a crypt. Exiting through a side door, we found ourselves in the fascinating, polygonal San Sepolcro, centered around the tomb of St. Petronius. In that church was a single, seemingly out of place, pillar that was shiny from 1,000 years worth of pilgrims touching it. Supposedly, making a pilgrimage to that pillar would earn one two hundred years of indulgences. We figured we could eat all the gelato we wanted as a result of our visit. We wandered through courtyards and cloisters, one containing an eighth century marble basin. The brickwork was impressive. There were many war memorials in and surrounding the Church of the Trinity. We ended our tour with a visit to the museum and the interesting gift shop where I bought a small purse-sized notebook with a hard cover that I had been seeking for two years.
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| 8th Century Basin |
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| Pillar of Pilgrimage |
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| Portico in Bologna |
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| Basilica Patriarchale di San Domenico |
From Santo Stefano, we strolled through more lovely porticoes to the Basilica Patriarchale di San Domenico, the principal church of the Dominican order. While the church appeared somewhat plain on the outside, the inside was a treasure trove. It was built in the thirteenth century to house the remains of St. Dominic. The chapel containing his tomb was the most richly decorated, and featured an elaborately carved marble tomb and painted ceiling in excellent condition. Michelangelo did some of his early work there. The church had two organs, one of which was in St. Dominic’s chapel. Mozart played one of his own compositions there at the age of fourteen. St. Dominic’s skull could be seen peeking out of a reliquary behind his tomb.
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| St. Dominic's Chapel |
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| St. Dominic's Tomb |
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| Chapel in the Bologna Cathedral |
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| Neptune's Fountain |
On our way home, we stopped at Neptune’s Fountain, the trident of which served as the inspiration for Maseratti’s logo. The fountain was nearby the library which rests atop Roman ruins and features a museum in its basement that we just had to see. By that time, we were cold and tired and glad to grab some soup and wine from a local grocery and return to our cozy apartment for the evening.
The next day, it was cold and foggy and we were glad to spend a leisurely morning in our apartment before checking out at 10:00 and heading to the train station. We got there well ahead of time and avoided a last minute dash across the immense Bologna Centrale to catch our train to Ravenna. The ride took about an hour and a quarter and we chatted with the friendly conductor and some other passengers who were glad to practice English. Everyone was enchanted with Sally’s English accent.
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| Apartment Building in Ravenna |
Our apartment in Ravenna was quite close to the train station and our landlady found it convenient to let us check in early. The apartment block was unassuming on the outside, but the quality of the materials used in construction was exceptionally fine. Our apartment was decorated with gorgeous antiques and featured beautiful hardwood floors and sturdy polished wood doors and handmade tile. It was a two-bedroom flat, so we each got our own room. We did have to call to get them to turn on the heat, as Ravenna was even colder and foggier than Bologna had been.
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| Flooded Crypt |
Before it got dark, we popped by Dante’s tomb and the pretty garden behind it. Then we bought some groceries and came home. I spent the evening working on my blog while Sally watched TV.
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Dante's Tomb
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| Car Ferry in Marina di Ravenna |
The following day, our mission was to check out the Marina di Ravenna, which is located some ten kilometers from the center of Ravenna. We had purchased bus tickets at the tourist office the day before and caught the 10:33 bus from the nearby train station. We rode through the countryside to Punta Marina Terme, an area of seaside resorts where a pine forest meets the beach. The bus route parallelled the beach for miles, finally arriving in Marina di Ravenna. We got off where the bus line terminated at the ferry terminal. The port of Ravenna connects the city of Ravenna with the Adriatic Sea, 12 kilometers away, via a canal. A car ferry crosses the harbor and ferries to Croatia also depart from there. Breakwaters stretch a mile and a half into the Adriatic to form the harbor and a massive pleasure boat marina with 1,000 slips has been constructed inside the harbor. This huge marina, filled almost exclusively with sailboats, has made Marina di Ravenna the heart of the Adriatic yachting community.
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| Marina di Ravenna |
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| Shopping Village at the Marina |
We got off the bus and headed straight for the marina. It was very cold and foggy. The area was almost deserted. There was a large, modern shopping village bordering the marina, filled with nautical shops, restaurants, and services. Most of them were closed, including the supermarket. We walked to the far end of the marina, admiring the boats, and then walked out to the end of the seemingly endless breakwater.
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| 1.5 Mile Long Breakwater |
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| "Lighthouse" |
On the outside of the breakwater were large, modern, fishing structures on stilts. At night, they would turn on bright lights and then lower giant nets into the water. Once the lights had attracted a sufficient number of mullet and pipefish, the nets would be raised. We were there during the day and only saw one net operate, but the entire length of the breakwater was occupied by men fishing. They would arrive with their gear on small trailers towed behind bicycles. We were there in the early afternoon and observed them drinking wine and even making coffee on camp stoves. We walked out to the end of the breakwater and saw several freighters pass by, guided by tugs, and two large sailboats bravely sailing in the chill air.
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| Fishing Huts |
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| Passing Sailboat |
By the time we got back from our walk, we were glad to stop for lunch in a local pizzeria before heading for our bus. We just missed one, so spent the next half hour strolling the malecon along the industrial harbor.
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| The Industrial Harbor at Marina di Ravenna |
The bus returned us to the train station about 16:00. It was too late to set out for any of the more interesting churches, since they closed at 17:00, so we decided to pick up a few items for dinner at the covered market off the Piazza A. Costa. We admired the well-executed statue in honor of Garibaldi’s wife, Anita, who was a hero of the struggle for the independence and unification of Italy. Not wanting to go a day without a church, we also stopped at the Basilica di San Giovanni Evangelista, a somewhat plain church that, nevertheless, displayed a large collection of early mosaics.
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| San Giovanni Evangelista |
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| The Covered Market in Ravenna |
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| San Giovanni Evangelista Interior |
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| Modern Mosaic Crucifix |
We returned home about dark and I spent the evening catching up on the writing I had neglected while visiting with Sally.
Nov. 8, 2024
Casa Manu, Ravenna, Italy
It was the off season and none of the attractions in Ravenna opened before 10:00. This allowed us to stay in our cozy apartment to drink coffee and eat breakfast until nearly 10:00. A 24-hour transportation strike was planned for the day, so we weren’t sure we would be able to get a bus out to Classe, where we wanted to visit the Basilica of St. Apollinare in Classe. We took the short walk to the train station and found that, while buses were parked along the street, the line we wanted was still running. We bought bus tickets from a vending machine, as the bus office was closed. Sally thought we could visit the church and return before our tickets’ 60 minutes of validity expired. We didn’t buy return tickets.
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| St. Apollinare in Classe |
While Classe was 8 km from the center of Ravenna, it was much closer than the marina. We arrived after about 15 minutes and found the basilica right away. The church was built in the first half of the sixth century and was dedicated to Saint Apollinaris, the first bishop of Ravenna, who is buried there. It is one of the greatest examples of early Christian basilicas and its polychrome mosaics are in fine condition. The apse features a colorful mosaic where the image of Saint Apollinaris occupies the central position usually reserved for Jesus. The hand of God can be seen reaching down from the glittering gold sky, looking like something out of Monty Python or the Yellow Submarine. The condition of the church was remarkable.
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| The Hand of God |
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| St. Apollinare Apse Mosaic |
The church was so fascinating that we barely made it to the bus stop before our hour was up. However, the strike had reduced the number of buses running. The next bus was scheduled well after our tickets had expired. We needed new tickets and there was nowhere to buy them. I had to download an app and buy tickets online. When a bus finally did appear, it was a different route than we had used to get there, but it went back to the train station, anyway. I clicked “validate” on my online ticket and then scanned the QR code on the bus. That set my 60 minutes ticking away. We got back without incident.
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| Statues of Cattle in Classe |
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| Basilica di San Vitale Tower |
Back before noon, we decided to visit the Basilica di San Vitale, another sixth century example of mosaic art. It was commissioned by Emperor Justinian. We had to buy tickets to enter and finally decided to buy the combined ticket to visit five sites. San Vitale not only had beautifully preserved mosaics, the floors were almost as ornate. The central dome had been frescoed in later centuries. The church was octagonal and was supported by flying buttresses. I had always heard that such buttresses were invented in the Gothic period and wondered if they were added later or had served as the model for French architects six hundred years later. I later learned that they were part of the original design.
Finally, our time slot to visit the Battistero Neoniano arrived. My camera battery took that moment to die. I did manage to get one shot of the baptismal font. The mosaics were similar to the others and just as well preserved. The baptistry was built atop a former Roman bath. It was built in the fifth century but decorated fifty years later. The nice thing about the timed visit was that they had lined the walls with chairs and it was possible to sit and gaze up at the mosaics on the dome of the octagonal structure.
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| Virgins Waiting on Mary in Sant'Apollinare Nuovo |
The last site included in our ticket was the Basilica di Sant’Apollinare Nuovo on our way home. This sixth century church was commissioned by Arian King Theodoric. He wanted it decorated with mosaics and it represents the meeting of the Roman and the Barbarians. One side of the nave is decorated with a procession of martyrs bringing gifts to Christ. The opposite side depicts a procession of virgins bearing gifts for Mary. The mosaics are exceptionally colorful. The apse was reconstructed after being damaged during WWII.
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| Detail of the Mosaic in Sant'Apollinare Nuovo |
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| 20th Century Apse |
We were very hungry after our pilgrimage through the churches of Ravenna. It was siesta time and few restaurants were open. We returned to the restaurant where we had eaten on our first day in Ravenna and sampled the local piadine, a sort of large taco made with flatbread. Then we returned to our flat to relax, graze on leftover munchies, and, in my case, write about the day before the information slipped my mind.
Your blog is much more interesting than a guide book. You make everything come alive. Thank you
ReplyDeleteCheers! Keep it up, I so enjoy reading about your travels (Amy, Brad's little sister)
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