Prato di San Vitale

Our cruise to Croatia and Greece embarked from Ravenna, Italy.

We had planned to hang out in Bologna and catch a train late in the day for Ravenna, thinking there was nothing to see there. Fortunately, we saw an article by Rick Steves saying Ravenna was worth visiting, so we trained there early and spent the day exploring. We were glad we did!

Ravenna has many, many mosaics dating back to the fifth century. As Rick Steve’s puts it, “Imagine…it's AD 540. The city of Rome has been looted, the land is crawling with barbarians, and the Roman Empire is crumbling fast. Into this chaos comes the emperor of the East, Justinian, bringing order and stability — and an appreciation for mosaic art.

As the westernmost pillar of the Byzantine Empire, Ravenna was a flickering light in Europe's Dark Ages.”

There are four main sites with mosaics in Ravenna, the Basilica di San Vitale, the Mausoleum of Galla Placida (where, apparently, Galla Placida is NOT buried), the Baptisterio Neoniano and the Basilica di Sant'Apollinar. All have magnificent mosaics, many of which are in just about as good shape as they were 15 or 16 centuries ago. The marble and glass the mosaics is made of are very hard and withstand the rigors of age far better than paintings or friezes. They looked like they could have been done yesterday!

We spent several hours touring the mosaics and then strolled to the Piazza del Popolo (People’s Square) in the center of town for apericena.

Italians have always enjoyed an aperitivo, a pre-dinner drink. Often, it is served with a very light snack, perhaps a few chips. In recent years, however, in some bars that light snack has grown to the point where it is known as apericena, a cross between aperitivo and cena, the Italian word for dinner. The bar we went to was definitely doing apericena. By the time we had finished our drinks and snacks, we had no need for dinner!Read more