Florence, Wednesday 21 May, Day 28

A beautiful crisp sunny morning in Ravenna as we trundled down through the old city watching the people getting started on their day, an impeccably stylishly dressed woman getting onto her bike, people everywhere in the little cafés enjoying their morning espresso, two old people meeting by chance on the street and exchanging kisses on both cheeks. Ravenna gets our vote for best place yet.

The train was lovely too, rolling through the cultivated country side, vineyards, crops, veggie gardens, charming Italian country houses, all looking pretty good in the morning sun.  Fast train from Bologna whizzes you onto a very different but still beautiful landscape of the hills of Tuscany.

Florence, being one of the top tourist destinations in the world, is not surprisingly jam packed with tourists. After lunch we headed over to check out the Duomo and the Baptiser with its famous Gates of Paradise doors by Lorenzo_Ghiberti. There was a dense crowd around the doors, composed almost entirely of people either taking selfies with the doors behind them, or being photographed standing in front of them

After dinner we headed on for a stroll down by the Piazza Della Republican with its high end fashion shops and the Piazza Della Signonia with its gallery of wonderfully florid statues, on down to the Ponte Vecchio, just in time for sunset. At least I think there was a sunset over there somewhere.

We are staying in a great Albergo on a medieval street. No cars, a great Trattoria next door, Laundromat directly opposite, lovely gelati shop in the little square round the corner, a mini mart that sells bananas - even a tattoo shop and a plumbing supplies shop. A great neighbourhood, and we are looking forward to going with the flow and enjoying this extraordinary city.

Ravenna, Tuesday May 20, Day 27

This morning we headed off to the Ufficina de Tourismo and collected keys for two of Ravenna's free tourist bicycles. What a great city - it has free WiFi almost everywhere, and best of all, free bicycles. The bikes were a bit careworn as they spend their lives sitting outside, but they were serviceable and made getting round to Ravenna sights very easy.

First off we rolled down to the Orthodox Baptistry_of_Neon, built in the fourth century over a pre-existing Roman baths, handy for full immersion baptisms. Something very special about round domed spaces. From here we rattled our way to the  Cappella di Santa' Andreas, the Archbishop's_Chapel, which is cunningly disguised as the Archbishops museum, or that's what the signs say. What is left of the chapel is lovely, an intimate space where the mosaics feel close and personal, and again the dome and the arched roofs make a special space. There is a sort of dialogue between the space and the mosaics that was quite missing in the essentially rectangular space of the Basilica_of_Sant'Apollinare_Nuovo that we visited later in the day. Not that the mosaics there were not spectacular. Just seemed like the artists had a bit more trouble working out what to do with the space.  Here is a photo of Anne with our bikes outside that Basilica.

We had lunch in a fresh pasta shop, yum. While Anne undertook some extensive research of the very snappy shops that line the streets here, I headed off on my bike for a bit of exploring. I stumbled over a 14th century Venetian fort, walls and moat largely intact, and marble lion still standing proudly over the gate.  It once stood on the coast line but is now thoroughly landlocked, and is today a lovely park.  After the fort I headed over to the Mausoleum_of_Theoderic, a rather odd building from around 520 AD with a massive monolithic marble roof.

Found Anne again and we went to see the Arian_Baptistry with its very human rendition of Christ. Had a rather too filling dinner in a restaurant nearby, than a stroll round, in the course of which we stumbled upon Dante's tomb, which we'd planned to see but hadn't been able to find till now.

So, all in all, it has been a great couple of days in Ravenna. We like the pace of life here, and it is a great place to learn more about late antiquity.

Tomorrow we are heading off to Florence which will be a big change of pace.

Ravenna, Monday 19 May, Day 26

Another perfect morning in Venice - the weather has been terrific, sunny and clear with a light breeze. Around 9 we caught a vaporetto to the train station. Not too crowded to start with tho at the bus station stop immediately before the train station stop a huge crowd swarmed onto the boat. Luckily we saw them coming and positioned ourselves on the side to get off for our stop. The vaporetto we caught runs past the freight import area of Venice. Everything you eat, sit on, use, shelter under, every last thing has to be brought in by small boat or by hand trolley. Amazing to see that in action.

The train trip ran as smoothly as we have come to expect from the Italian rail service, and we had a range of travelling companions along the way, a sort of cross section of Italian society, including a twinkly older nun who wished us Buon voyagio, a gaggle of adolescents finishing school for the day, a lady farm worker, a chap who I bet didn't have a ticket and who departed abruptly before the ticket inspector reached us, and any number of ladies with massive bulky suitcases weighing more than themselves.

We arrived in Ravenna round 2.00 and for once found our hotel first try, and without too much effort.

After getting organized we headed out to explore.  So far we've formed a very positive impression of Ravenna. There are almost no cars in the old city section, lots of people strolling about, 3 gelato shops within 50 metres of each other, and lots of bicycles being ridden by people of all ages, typically at a stately pace not a huge amount faster than walking. I watched an older chap in a crumpled mac fish in his pocket for a cigarette packet, open it, extract a cigarette all travelling about 5 miles per hour. He did stop to light it though.

Today we visited the Basilica_of_San_Vitale, a church begun around 527 when Ravenna was under Ostrogoth rule, and completed in 547 when Ravenna has been brought under the control of Byzantium after Belusarius' campaign to return the Italian peninsula to Roman, albeit Eastern Roman, rule. The church has mosaics from both the Ostrogoth and Byzantine eras, including a portrait of Justinian I and Belusarius.

Nearby the church is the even older Mausoleum_of_Galla_Placidia, a much smaller but more completely realised interior. The effect of the wrap around mosaics is much more powerful. I found it impossible to get any photo that gave any idea of what that interior is like. We'd like to go back there when it is quieter.

After absorbing so much history and culture we felt a strong need to absorb a glass of wine, and luckily our hotel offers a sort of Italian tapas - you buy a glass of wine and fill up your plate from a selection of tasty offerings at the bar. The girl in the bar assured us that we were drinking the best wine in Italy and it certainly tasted pretty darn good.

After dinner we strolled down some of the quiet streets doing some window shopping. So far we like Ravenna a lot.

Venice Sunday 18, Day 25

A lovely quiet Sunday morning. After breakfast we pottered down the quiet streets to the Zaretta vaporetti station, and caught the boat to Saint Marks Square, to visit the Museo Correr. This has a collection of artefacts and representations of Venetian life and history, mostly from the 1500's on, plus some artefacts from bronze age and Etruscan inhabitants of the area, lots of Roman marble, and other stuff.

The representations of Venice and its naval history are interesting, enormously detailed. We could see the canal where our hotel is located, and you can make out the four lions outside the Arsenal, in the same place they are today.  Some of the more everyday items were striking and gave an insight into what Venice must have been like on the past. There are shoes which have wooden stilts built in, about 150cms high, which must have been for walking through flooded streets and squares.

After the museum we felt a little weary - perhaps museum fatigue is setting in - so we went for a walk along the shore front down to Arsenale. Once the crowds cleared the walk was pleasant. I guess in Venice there is always a sea breeze, as it is surrounded by water, but the air and the water and the sun this morning seemed particularly fine.

I wanted to show Anne the four very disparate and distinctive lions that guard the entrance to the Arsenale. Like so much in Venice, there is a rich history behind each.  Anne like the one on the extreme left best.

This is the Piraeus_Lion looted from the harbour of Athens in 1687 by the Venetian navy during the Great Turkish War.  The lion dates from at least the first century AD, and has runes carved by Scandinavian mercenaries employed by the Byzantine empire visible on his shoulder.   One of his companion lions is even older, said to date from 400 BC. And they are all just sitting there, on the edge of the square, exposed to the weather and the vagaries of the tide of humanity that sweeps past them.

We wandered a bit further along past the gardens then by pure luck caught a ferry which came express back to our local stop. A quiet afternoon, then headed out for dinner, to find that our planned dinner location was closed, as were most other restaurants in our local area. We had pasta outside on the square at San Barnabas then explored in a new direction, over towards the University. The squares over that way were party town, with lots of young people standing outside bars clutching drinks and having a good time. Some sore heads tomorrow though I think.

So, our last day in Venice. Tomorrow Ravenna.

Venice Saturday 17 May, Day 24.

Today we did a dry run of our departure and caught the vaporetto round to the train station. Takes about 15 minutes on the boat, probably quicker to walk but much less effort as long as the boat isn't too packed Monday morning. Our plan was to get off there and catch the vaporetto down to Saint Mark's, but we could see the queue stretching back on the dock, so we stayed on the one we were on and had a lovely ride down the back of the main island, parallel to the causeway over which the rail line runs. A nice, older Venetian lady with a shopping jeep - which seems to be the number one fashion accessory for older Venetian ladies - took a shine to us and gave us lots of advice about things we should see in Venice. She had no English and we had very little Italian, so no doubt we missed a lo but it was a nice interaction, and we shook hands and farewelled one another fondly when we got off. 

We worked our way through the little streets across to the Rialto Market.  Anne wanted to buy a sun hat, and the lady at the hotel and a friend who happened to be visiting had, after much discussion, advised us of a shop near the market. We found the general area, and sought advice from a wonderfully courtly proprietor of a nearby Tobacc, who with grave courtesy and kindness directed us the last few metres to the shop, which indeed provided just the item Anne was after.  Caught another vaporetto to a nearby stop, and came back to the hotel to regroup.

In the afternoon we visited the nearby Gallerie_dell'Accademia. As per usual, we managed to walk right past the entrance and had to circumnavigate the building. But it was worth the walk. The gallery was hosting an exhibition of the work of an artist we had never heard of, Carlo_Saraceni, an early Baroque Italian painter who was rather unkindly described as "a first-class painter of the second rank".  Anne thought his Saint Cecilia and the Angel was one of the best paintings in the Galleria.

There are some wonderfully bizarre works of early Italian painting in that collection, some weird but recognizable cityscapes of Venice, some huge and some impenetrable allegorical images, but the painting that Anne and I both independently (as we'd lost one another by this stage) decided we liked best was one entitled Madonna del Parto, by none other than the Maestro Della Madonna del Parto.

I particularly like the direct gaze, and that she is thoughtfully seated on a comfy cushion.

We had an extremely civilized meal at a nearby restaurant, explored a few more streets nearby. We can now navigate Dorsodura without getting lost. Nearly time to move on.

Venice Friday 16 May, Day 23

Another beautiful morning in Venice, and we caught the vaporetti with a bunch of determined looking Nonnas with market shopping trolleys. San Marco Square was already building up but the queue for the church was not too bad, and we discovered once we got inside that only a small percentage of people through the door go to the things that cost money. We headed up the stairs to the Museum, and saw in the round the famous, fabled Horses_of_Saint_Mark. They are believed to have been cast in 400 BC, were appropriated by the Eastern Roman empire, stood in the Hippodrome in Constantinople for almost a thousand years, before being carted off as part of the booty from the fourth crusade's sack of Constantinople, brought back to Venice before being carted off by Napoleon, then repatriated back to Venice. They have been around. And they have enormous presence. There are signs all round saying 'no photo', which everyone, including me, cheerfully ignored.  Here are the left pair.

The Treasury of Saint Marks is similarly composed largely of Byzantine chalices, reliquaries, incence boats and other extraordinary examples of Byzantine workmanship. The golden altarpiece, a huge panel of gold about 5 metres by 3 metres high, made about 500 ad, encrusted with jewels, 1500 pearls, 300 rubies, hundreds of emeralds, sapphires, and brilliant enamel panels, was also carted off from Constantinople.  Extraordinary the extent to which the Venetians have just appropriated so much, from Saint Mark himself onwards, and made it their own.

We caught a vaporetto back and after lunch Anne went off with the lovely lady who manages the hotel to the hairdressers, while I went to an exhibition of the machines of Leonardo Da Vinci which is on in San Barnabas Church round the corner. A very engaging exhibition of machines built from Da Vinci's drawings. A very hands on exhibition, where you could crank handles and get hammers to beat on anvil, pump water using his version of an Archimedes screw, and more. There is even a bicycle, but the provenance of the drawing is contested.

Watched the end of the 6th stage of the Giro, go Cadel and Michaela Matthews as the commentators here call him, then dinner and a stroll round the little streets, during which we saw a Venetian ambulace boat scooting down one of the tiny canals, lights flashing. Guess that makes sense, when there are no roads. What a wonderful place, not a single car.

Venice Thursday 15 May, Day 22

Woke this morning to the sound of birds and bells. Dorsoduro is wonderfully quiet - no traffic noise apart from the occasional motor launch down the San Trovaso Canal, and the only sounds footsteps, voices, birds and bells. The little boats often have a dog on board, sometimes a silent dignified figurehead and sometimes enjoying the watery echo of its barking.

Today we set off to explore Venice and see if we could decode the Vaporetti water bus system. We decided we'd buy weekly tickets on the basis that we will likely use the vaporetti every day. First one we caught terminated at San Marco, which was already a solid mass of people. Got a map showing the ferry routes, the caught one to Lido and then one back along the grand canal. A nice, relatively comfortable and economical way to get a tour of Venice.  Had a nice salad for lunch - we are feeling a bit over-carbed, then got pleasantly lost getting back to the hotel as our known route was blocked off for bridge works.

Anne settled down for a siesta, while I headed out for a walk back over past San Marco through the dense crowds and on to the Arsenal, where many of the ships which transported the Fourth_Crusade on to devastate Constantinople were built. The first assembly line in history probably. What a different world it would be had the Venetians been less efficient in organizing and building that fleet.

Caught a vaporetti back, then wandered along by the waterfront, and watched a huge cruise ship carving its way through the bustling water traffic. So much of Venice seems still to be medieval scale, the sight of something so vast and modern seemed weirdly incongruous.

We shared a bottle of local wine  up on the little terrace on the roof of the hotel with an American couple who are staying here. The warmth and light at the end of the day was very relaxing.  Anne and the American lady compared knee ailments and we discussed cultural over-saturation - the too many Madonnas not another church syndrome and ways to approach it. Some of the artworks we've seen are so marvellous that you want to stop right there and not see another thing.  This is what we're learning to do.

Headed off to yet another lovely dinner, followed by an icecream, and then getting creatively lost yet again. The upside of this episode of navigational embarrassment was the discovery of the closest thing we've seen to a supermarket in Italy. It was very entertaining. Supermarket culture seems like another modern invention which doesn't quite fit in Venice.

Tomorrow we want to get out and over to San Marco's before the crowds descend. We have a plan!