The next day I joined Edo on his gelato delivery run as he was going through a particularly nice area up in the mountains. The countryside in Italy is beautiful, much greener than I expected, and the area we drove through is full of little farms that supply the local restaurants with fresh produce. That evening we went to the guys' local bar, which is a bit more like a social club, where I was introduced to the game of boccette - a game played on a pool table with large pool-style balls but that's where the similarity ends, its actually more like bowls!
The next day I decided to do a bit of sightseeing so went to the town of Ravenna just to the North of Savignano sul Ribicone (where I'm staying). One of the things Ravenna is famous for is the amazingly detailed mosaics that cover the insides of the old churches and date back over 1,500 years! They were really spectacular, the churches are huge and the mosaics are so detailed that if you stand a few meters away you think you are looking at a painting! Another triumph of the day was that I managed to get directions to all the churches, order food and even find a bus to a different town to meet another friend, Marco, speaking only in Italian.
Marco and I went to watch a "surfing" competition. The reason I have put the word in quotation marks is that there are not really any surfable waves on the beaches around this part of the country, and anyhow, it was at a lake. What they actually do is take a powerful boat, crowd it with people to get the right weight, and shoot it across the lake as fast as they can to create great (if a bit small) waves! Marco knows one of the guys that runs it so I might get to have a go later on this week if I'm lucky!
After that we went to the beach in Cesenatico, which was quite a novel experience. As we parked I still couldn't see the beach and asked Marco how far it was. He laughed and said its just in front of us....it turns out that all the beaches are completely private and are divided up into strips, about 20 meters wide, where the owner builds a bar/club/disco. It just looked like a row of bars to me, you couldn't actually see the beach from the road! And then you walk through the bar onto the beach and its completely packed with sun loungers and parasols, coloured differently for each bar, right up to the sea! Its great fun though - we got some beers, lounged in the sun, played pool, table football and table tennis - all right on the beach.
An action shot of me delivering some gelato!
A bit of the Italian countryside
One of the main squares in Ravenna
The streets are really thin
A statue inside the gardens of The Basilica of San Vitale
Huge tablets of mosaics that were removed when restoring the church are on display inside
They're all very precise...
...in fact, you have to look really close to tell they're mosaics!
The roof of The Basilica of San Vitale
And the ceiling just above the alter - yes, this is all a mosaic
This arch shows Jesus in the middle with the 12 apostles running down either side
The colours are very vibrant, especially as these mosaics are about 1,500 years old!
This one has four angles around "The Lamb of God"
The main ceiling of The Mausoleum of Galla Placidia
Rich blue and gold mosaics in The Mausoleum of Galla Placidia
The Basilica of San Vitale from the outside
The ceiling of The Battistero Neoniano, depicting Jesus being baptised
More mosaics in The Battistero Neoniano
Each mosaic tells a story...
An easter calendar in the museum in Ravenna
A chair made completely from ivory
The beach in Cesenatico
Bagno Angello, the bar where Marco used to work on the beach in cesenatico
2 comments:
Nice pics bro!
Hows the pizza? ;)
grtz,
Woods
the pizza is amazing!!! best ever!
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