The 30 some odd CIEE students loaded up a bus for a day of guided tours of Ravenna, Pomposa, and Camacchio. Our first stop was Ravenna, a small town 60 kilometers southeast of Ferrara, thousands of years ago it was a coastal town on the Adriatic Sea but now sits a kilometer or two from the Adriatic. Ravenna is known for its mosaics and being the capital of the Western Roman Empire. Thus making it a hub for trade, giving the small town rich history. After a quick walk through town center we toured the Basilica of San Vitale an Octagonal plan church. Ravenna has a high water table which cause sinking buildings, the San Vitale is below the water table floors are kept dry by pumps. At one point they raised the level of the floors by over 20cm but since then they've taken out the floors, returning to the original floor. The mosaics we saw were very impressive and old, primarily from the 5 or 6 century. The arists would lay down the plaster, draw it out, and paint a full-color fresco before they would lay in all the tiny pieces of colored glass for the mosaic. On the gold pieces they would sandwich gold leafs between two pieces of glass (the top one was clear, obviously) The mosaics very detailed, colors so vibrant they looked new with mesmerizing detail. The pictures, obviously, don't do the mosaics justice.
P.S. Some of these pictures were taken by the more, "photography minded" kids in the program and are unlawfully being used.
Just a few steps away was Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, a the small building, constructed in the form of a Latin cross. It was very dark and with a ceiling covered in stars gives an eerie appearance of night.
We then visited Dante's tomb, who for the most part, founded Italian. Great picture. . . pause. . not.
Our last stop in Ravenna was Basilica of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo was built in the 6th century originally as Theodoric's palatinate church. Is now preceded by a simple but harmonious 16th century marble portico, to be honest it wasn't too special.
We jumped back on the bus and headed over to Pomposa, a gloried road side rest stop, so cleverly named after the Pomposa Abby located nearby. The church was founded in the 6th century A.D. reaching its peak shortly after the year 1000. A little know fact: Giudo da Pamposa invented the modern musical notation, the staff, there. At one time the Abby was uncared for, allowing the roofs to collapse. It's has since been resorted numerous times but leaving the frescos in poor condition. I enjoyed seeing the frescos showing a numerous signs of wear, because I've become use to seeing the art in pristine condition. I have no picture to document this account as photos were not allowed in any of the buildings and I left my camera on bus. More unlicensed pictures, of the Bell Tower, that has more open space on the tower making it easier to build and gives it a unsual design:
After another quick bus ride we arrived in Comacchio, surround marshes is known for its fish. On the bus ride there were given the option to sign up for a tandem language partner, ie. I would get an Italian wanting to better understand English. On the form it ask for our interested, I put: being American, sports, Italy, Traveling and other random assortment of activities. I'm curious to who they match me up with. We first toured a former eel marinating factory, it was pretty uneventful since it's now a museum. To my dismay they didn't sell any eel there, more on that later.
Comacchio is a small town, sometimes referred to as, Little Veince for the few canals that dissect the city streets. We had some time to walk around and explore, I wanted eel. Moments before we suppose to meet up I ran into small fish market and bought what I thought was eel, Alici Marinate. Turns out, Alici is the word for anchovies, oopps.
Canals.
Golden Aches, not the MacDonald kind.
Back on the bus we headed to a former farm now turned restaurant/hotel. It's partly owned by one of the program directors. We enjoyed some tasty appetizers and then a buffet of wonderful Brazilian food, followed desert and a small Brazilian band. We arrived back at Darsena around midnight pretty tired from the long day and this is a long post.
No comments:
Post a Comment