Having re-visited my two favorite Italian places Rome and Venice these last years, it felt like it was time to stretch my wings and break new ground in a country that's literally overflowing with history and fabulous sights. One area I had been rather interested in was the Emilia Romagna around Ravenna, chock-full with historical places you'd need weeks to see all.
The nearest airport was, quite conveniently, Bologna, another town I've been keen to see. So it was back to dear old Cologne Airport and Germanwings and off to Italy's blue skies. There had been much advertising about a direct bus between the airport and Ravenna, but the bus only runs four times a day and of course not when I needed it - so I took the aerobus to Bologna Centrale and a regular train to Ravenna from there - for all but 6.90 Euro. Some things just make a German weep with envy.
I found Ravenna oddly deserted when I arrived - shops were open, but nobody was in them except the bored salespeople. The reason dawned on me when I arrived at my B&B - Italy was playing in the world cup and my landlord was glued to the box as well. I felt I should apologize that I was disturbing him, but he grumbled about Italy being shit and didn't matter - true enough, the Azzurri were losing against Costa Rica (!). I was surprised by an unexpected upgrade to a large and nice suite and decided to just stay indoors, having no energy left to go out for dinner again.
Next morning it was time to see the sights - most importantly Ravenna's fabled mosaics that date from about 4th to 6th century, when the Roman Empire had fallen apart and Ravenna enjoyed its brief spot in the sun as capital of a Western Roman Empire next to Constantinople's Eastern Roman Empire . I tackled the church of San Vitale first to avoid the sheeple that have become the bane of my life and got to enjoy the incredible beauty of its mosaics almost all alone.
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Above left the dazzling beauty inside San Vitale as well as one of the amazingly detailed mosaics in Galla Placidia's tomb next-door (though history now knows the empress was never buried there, as she lived and died in Rome), so nobody really knows whose tomb it -really- is.
Following a little break in a beautiful herb garden smack in the middle of town, it was time for the next of the eight World Heritage Sites in Ravenna, the Battistero Neoniano built by Bishop Neon in 5th century, when new Christians were still baptized by a full dunk in cold water. Not to be confused with the Arian Baptistry, slightly younger (built in 6th century) and smaller. The Arian sect ran into trouble not long after and petered out, replaced by Catholicism, while the "Neonians" became what's now the (Eastern) Orthodox Church. Confused yet?
It was onwards to the neighboring Museo Arcivescovile, the former archbishop's palace, which hides St. Andrew's Chapel with even more gorgeous mosaics (but no photos allowed there for some reason). Finally the last stop on the Mosaic/World Heritage Circuit was the church of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo which has a lovely picture of the three wise men as the men in funky tights.
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That's not to say that Ravenna is done yet - the little town hides plenty more to see, not least the underground (and unter water) mosaics inside the church of San Francisco and of course the tomb of Italy's greatest poet, Dante Alighieri, he of the Divine Comedy, who spent most of his life in Florence before he unwisely upset the powers that be and got chucked out.
A slightly longer detour took me to the last of Ravenna's sights, the mausoleum of Theoderic the Great, founder of the Ostrogothic Kingdom for which he picked Ravenna as his capital. Since the building is empty now (his bones got lost when Byzantine General Belisarius conquered Ravenna in 540 AD), I decided to not fork out for a better look inside and just took this picture before returning into the city to finally crash at the Piazza del Popolo, Ravenna's gorgeous central piazza (courtsey of the Venetians who re-arranged medieval Ravenna once they got their paws on the area) .
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If this building looks somewhat familiar, you've been playing Assassin's Creed (which seems to be following me wherever I go in Italy - or am I following the game?). It's Ravaldino Fortress in Forli, painstakingly recreated for the game, and once the home of the magnificent Caterina Sforza, one of those ass-kicking ladies of yesteryear I truly admire for their courageous lives.
The indomitable Caterina did plenty of impressive things, though she is now best-known for the Siege of Forli, where she held out against the universally feared Cesare Borgia and -seriously- pissed him off. Though sadly, he did finally take Ravaldino - the white stone still visible in the wall contains the Borgia arms he had quickly put in to mark his territory.
I was rather disappointed that it wasn't possible to actually access the fortress and look around, so instead I wandered into the city center and to the main Piazza Saffi, but since it was Sunday morning and also boiling hot early on, not much was going on there - most of Italy seemed to have fled to the beach.
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So I decided to head out again - thanks to brilliant Italian traffic planning, I had to do a huge detour via Rimini to get from Ravenna to Forli and since I had to change trains there anyway, decided to go take a look at the city, that was always tied to the "Teutonengrill" of the 60s and 70s.
When the post-war generation in Germany finally had money and private cars to go on vacation, they crossed the Alps in droves, heading for the Adriatic Coast in Italy around Rimini. It was only when cheap charter flights and package tours became available in the 80s, that the Teutonengrill in Italy got replaced by the Ballermann in Mallorca as the place to be for narrow-minded dull German vacationers who clamour for schnitzel, German beer and the BILD and complain when the horrible locals don't speak fluent German.
From what I saw from the train window, the vacation places along the Adriatic there are still rather grotty, though Rimini itself was quite charming. I went to the beach first,which was naturally completely cluttered up with "stabilimenti" but also had a nice promenade where I had lunch, looked at the Grand Hotel where Fellini shot his classic movie Amarcord and strolled around a nice foodie market. I also went into town to look at Rimini's main sight, the mighty Renaissance fortress Castel Sismondo which Sigismondo Malatesta had built during the Renaissance, but a mixture of heat and lack of public conveniences drove me back to the train station quicker than I had planned. Oh well.
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Next day was my own day on the beach - Ravenna is close to a long stretch of gorgeous beaches, close enough to rent a bike from my B&B and bike there in less than an hour. Of course the beach here was blighted by "stabilimente" too, but this time I was prepared and ready to fork out 12.00 Euro for a sunlounger and an umbrella. Mind you, it's not even more than around other European beaches and I do think it's fine to pay for these things (and have access to changing rooms, showers and toilets) when you spend the whole day, but what really bugs me about Italy is just that there is NO way to just access the beach for free, just to look around or a quick swim. Anyway, Punta Marina Beach was indeed gorgeous and I did have a good quiet day there, so no complaining.
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And so my quick trip to Italy was already drawing to a close, but since I didn't fly out of Bologna until the late afternoon anyway, I seized the chance to dump my luggage at the station for a while and look around the beautiful city center - the Piazza Maggiore (above) with the Sala Borsa, the Basilica San Petronio and the beautiful fountain of Neptune.
Bologna also still has some of the huge medieval towers that were the Renaissance cock-measuring contests of the rich and nobles before fancy sports cars and yachts were invented. The 48 m high Torre Garisenda now leans 3.2 m to the side (!) and is out of bounds for visitors, but the 97.2 m high Torre Asinelli can be trudged up via 500 stairs - a trip definitely worth the effort because the view over Bologna is absolutely beautiful:
