A meander through Modena; more basilicas in Bologna.

Saturday 6 October. Off to Bologna station this morning (we’ve worked out the platform system!) and jumped on a regional train for the 30 minute ride to Modena, of balsamic vinegar fame.  First stop there was the old town centre and the UNESCO-listed cathedral – one of the finest Romanesque churches in Italy, dating from 1099.  Apart from the elaborate crypt where St Geminianus lies, the church was dark and gloomy, perhaps exaggerated by the scaffolding supporting the restoration work being done in the nave.  After lunch in the undercover fresh food markets (lasagne, and ravioli filled with ricotta and sage) we took a long, slow walk through the open-air antique market, then visited a few more local churches before afternoon tea of cheesecake and chocolate cake.  We returned to Modena station by way of the public park and gardens and, back in Bologna, set off to explore more churches.  First, the Basilica di San Dominico.  The basilica was built in 1238 to house the remains of Saint Dominic, the founder of the Dominican order. His elaborately-carved sarcophagus lies in a beautiful capella (chapel).  Michelangelo carved one of the angels alongside the altar in the chapel when he was just 19, and Mozart played the organ at this basilica when he spent a month at the city’s music academy. We also visited the Basilica of San Paolo Maggiore, built in 1611, and the relatively modern (1883) Church of San Procolo where Saint Procolos bones had pride of place in a glass cabinet.  A highlight of the day was the walk back to our apartment in the late afternoon.  Via Ugo Bassi and several of its adjoining streets, which we had seen to be filled with a constant stream of cars, buses and motorcycles during the day, were all closed off to vehicular traffic, allowing literally thousands of people to stroll along, walking their dogs, stopping in the middle of the street to chat with friends, listening to live bands spaced along the way, or dining at street-side cafes and restaurants. It was a wonderful sight to see so many people getting so much enjoyment from such simple activities.

Tomorrow:  the Sanctuary of the Madonna di San Luca (and anything else we’ve missed in Bologna).

Bountiful Bologna.

Friday 5 October.  We had another great day trekking around the historic sites of this bustling city.  First stop was the open-air markets at the Quadrilatero off the imposing Piazza Maggiore, which was the centre of the original Roman settlement of Bologna.  John had a great time buying fish for our dinner tonight – with a couple of obvious exceptions he had no idea what he was looking at.  Time and taste will tell.  (Stop Press: we’ve just eaten the fish – whatever it was - and the scampi and they were delicious.)  We bought enough seafood, meat, veggies and fruit to see us through the next few days here.  Then to Piazza Maggiore itself for a look at the huge statue of Neptune and a visit to the Palazzo Communale, which includes a statue of Pope Gregory XIII who as Bolognian Prelate devised the Gregorian calendar which we still use.  A more modern note is provided on one outside wall of the palace – three large displays of photos of hundreds of Italian partisans who were killed for resisting the German occupation in World War II, many in this very spot.  We visited a number of churches, including the Basilica of San Petronio, Bologna’s largest Gothic church (132 metres long, 66 metres wide and 47 metres to the top of the dome).  It has a huge sundial which runs almost 70 metres along one of the side aisles and catches the sunlight on its calibrations through a small hole in the roof.  It was instrumental in identifying an anomaly in the Gregorian calendar and led to the inclusion of the leap year. To the seventeenth century Teatro Anatomico in the old Palazzo dell Archiginnasio, where autopsies and dissections were held, including on victims of the Inquisition (see photo).  Then to the University Quarter and the Obstetrics Museum in the Museum of Natural Sciences (in the old Palazzo Poggi), with many casts of babies in utero, including a pair of twins. More churches, piazzas and leaning towers then back to our apartment for a seafood dinner and an early night.

Tomorrow: A short train ride to Modena.

Palmed off in Parma; bedded down in Bologna.

Thursday 4 October.  Today was one of those days with lots of activity but not much to show for it.  We caught the train from Ravenna at 9am for the one-hour trip to Bologna, put our cases into storage for the day, then after a bit of confusion about platforms (Bologna has two sets of platforms with the same numbers; you just have to know whether it is east or west, which unfortunately is not shown on the departure board – at least not in English), we finally boarded a train to Parma just before 11am, arriving there about noon.  The problem is that Parma shuts down for the hours between noon and 3pm, with the exception of a very few of its main attractions.  So we walked past the closed Duomo, the closed Chiesa (church) di Santa Maria della Steccata, the closed Chiesa de San Giovanni Evangelista and a few other closed museums and galleries.  However we did get inside the thirteenth century St Johns Pharmacy, with its collection of jars, 40cm high pestles with mortars, rare pharmaceutical and fresco-style paintings of famous doctors of times past (unfortunately no photos allowed). There was also a well in the laboratory and a cellar which was mainly used to store spices.   We did visit one small church, the Chiesa di Santa Lucia which again had beautiful frescoed ceilings. We then walked to the Piazza Garibaldi to view the giant 1829 sun-dial on the facade of a seventeenth century palace. So after walking past closed shops displaying delectable local hams and cheeses, we boarded another train back to Bologna, walked to our new apartment and met our most delightful hosts Rafaella and Marcello.  They are absolutely charming - as is the apartment, of two-storeys with a beautiful bedroom and bathroom/laundry downstairs. Upstairs is one large attic-like room with sloping ceilings, complete with full kitchen, dining table, lounge area and a large window that opens to look out over adjacent roofs. There is also a small glass-fronted room, with a clothesline that can be raised somewhere up near the heavens. Our hosts arrived with fruit, eggs, biscuits and a bottle of wine and we found the apartment stocked with other goodies that they insisted we use as we please – garlic, herbs, pasta and all the condiments we will need.  We know we are going to love it here.

Tomorrow: start exploring Bologna.

Dante, more mosaics and a sortie to the seaside.

Wednesday 3 October. First stop this morning was the tomb of Dante Aligheri, “the divine poet” and author of The Divine Comedy.  Dante died in exile in Ravenna in 1321 and is entombed next to the fifth-century church of San Francesco where his funeral was held.  There is a mound covered in ivy next to the tomb in which Dante’s urn was temporarily buried during WWII to avoid the possibility of damage from bombings.  A small lamp suspended in the tomb is never extinguished.  Then, after a look through S. Francesco, on bus number 4 to the township of Classe for a visit to the monumental Basilica di Sant’ Apollinare in Classe.  It was consecrated on 549, not long after the Byzantine forces had expelled the Goths.  The nave is flanked by 24 marble pillars each side, however the apse is the reason for our visit; the walls and ceiling are covered by exceptional mosaics, rich in gold and turquoise, set against a backdrop of birds nesting in shrubbery.  St Apollinare stands in the centre, with a row of lambs either side, symbolising the apostles.  Above the columns either side of the nave are paintings of Ravenna’s bishops, added over a 6oo year period up to the eighteenth century, and around the walls are  sarcophagi containing the remains of some of the bishops. The strategic significance of the ancient port of Classe was that it was a home port for the Roman fleet.

Then back to Ravenna and bus number 70 to the coastal port of Marina di Ravenna; not much there, although a gelato salved our disappointment and we took the opportunity to dip our toes in the Adriatic Sea and crane our necks to see if we could catch a glimpse of Croatia on the other side.  Then back to Ravenna for a look at its own leaning tower, the Torre del Pubblico.  You can’t enter it but its lean is greater than Pisa’s.

Tomorrow: the short train ride to Bologna, then a further one hour west to Parma for some ham and cheese before returning and settling into our Bologna apartment.

Ravenna – mostly mosaics: magical, mesmerising mosaics.

Tuesday 2 October.  There is a heaven. We found it when we walked into the Basilica di San Vitale, consecrated in 547 and containing some of the most cherished mosaics anywhere in the world.  They are absolutely beautiful and it is difficult to imagine that they have survived for more than fourteen centuries. The scale is enormous; the apse is a huge, vaulted-domed structure and all of the walls and the ceiling are covered in the most exquisite mosaics, depicting biblical scenes from the time of Abraham and perhaps the most well-known mosaics in the world – Emperor Justinian (who constructed the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople 532-537) and his ministers on one side of the apse, and his Empress, Theodora, and her ladies-in-waiting facing him from the opposite side.  We were there for over an hour, just taking it all in and trying to commit as much as we could of this wonderful place to our memory.

That was just the start.  From there we walked to the Mausoleo di Galla Placido, which holds the oldest mosaics in Ravenna, then to the archaeological museum to view more mosaics and historical artefacts from the sixth century, including an exquisite sixth century ivory bishop’s throne. Then a walk through a small garden which contained a beautiful bright-red celosia, a flower that even Elizabeth had not seen before. We continued on through churches, battisteros, then a long walk to the Tomb of Theodoric the Great, who became emperor of the western Roman Empire after he and his Visigoth army defeated the Roman army.  He effectively made Ravenna the capital of the Roman Empire (in the west only; Constantinople remained capital of the eastern Roman Empire until it fell to the Ottomans in 1453).  Theodoric’s mausoleum is constructed of huge uncemented blocks, with a 300 tonne dome.  Back to the main old town area, a couple of churches – with mosaics – on the way, and to the Basilica di Sant’ Apollinaire Nuovo, built by the Goths in the sixth century and containing the longest continuous mosaic still extant.  Among other things it features twenty-six white-robed martyrs and twenty-two virgins, as well as the three wise men, approaching Christ and his apostles.

It is impossible to express in words the overall beauty that these mosaics contain and the sense of awe that you feel being able to look at them. It leaves you spell-bound.  Fortunately, a triple gelato cone at the end of the day brought us back to the present.

Tomorrow:  more of the same, a bit wider afield.

Arrivo a Ravenna

Monday 1 October. Another day of travel – three trains and a luxury bus. We left Ljubljana about 9am and shared our train compartment with a young couple from Adelaide, who have been back-packing around Europe for the past three months.  Then, at Villach, transferred to a posh double-decker bus for the three-hour trip to Venice.  First class was downstairs with very comfortable reclining seats, a toilet and tea/coffee facilities.  Our companions in adjacent seats were a family from Brisbane.  This was a beautiful drive through the mountains along he Austrian-Italian border, with frequent waterfalls and white-water rivers adjacent to the roadway.  Then another train to Bologna and a local train for the last hour and a bit to Ravenna, arriving here 6.30pm.  Booked in to the Hotel Centrale Byron – apparently Byron stayed in Ravenna for a while – a lovely old hotel. Then out for a walk through the old town before stopping for a pizza and fettucine dinner at a nearby restaurant. 

Tomorrow: explore Ravenna, with its UNESCO-listed churches and mausoleums and especially its mosaics dating back to the fifth century.

A sleep-in in sleepy Slovenia; roamin’ through the ruins.

This town is so quiet that we had a sleep-in this morning – not a car, a church bell, a slamming door to be heard.  Nothing much is open in Ljubljana on Sundays. We were finally out and about, back across the Dragon Bridge to the funicular for the 70m ride up to Ljubljana castle. The castle dates back to Celtic times, although most of what you see now has been rebuilt since the 1511 earthquake.  Since then it has been a fort, a royal residence, military barracks and a prison, and is now a museum and venue for concerts and other functions.  It provides views over all of the old town and much of the environs extending beyond.  It has some old cannons, a watchtower (which we climbed!) and the Chapel of St George (who, according to one of several legends, slew the dragon that inhabited the marshes around Ljubljana), which has survived since 1489. An interesting fact is that evidence of the very earliest wheel on an axle, dating back to about 3,200BC, was found in the Ljubljana marsh.

After lunch a visit to the Ethnological Museum for two thought-provoking exhibitions: “I, we and others – images of our world”, which discussed, in words, picture and sounds, the relationship between individuals, families, communities, nations and the world.  The second was “Between nature and culture”, which examined various non-European cultures and lifestyles – the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.  Then we took off in the opposite direction, back across town, to locate the remains of the Roman settlement in the first few centuries AD (or CE), then known as Emona.  We saw an archaeological site showing the remains of houses, with their wells, underground heating and sewerage systems, as well as remnants of the old Roman town, extending for a couple of hundred metres.  Then a final walk through the old town and back “home” for dinner and an early night.

Tomorrow: on the train for an 8 hour trip to Ravenna, north-eastern Italy.