7/22 I was looking forward to leaving my spartan lodging in Sorrento for a nice place with AC. I changed trains in Naples and what a dump that is. I heard later that the trash collectors have been on strike for 3 months and people are being warned not to go there because of health risks. I can see why.

I managed to avoid another train strike as I went through Rome and Bologna before arriving in Ravenna . I even finished The Poe Shadow which had been a slow read because it is much more intellectual than the novels I usually read. I started a Harlon Coben book and was looking forward to it since I have really enjoyed his books.

I had a short walk to the hotel but saw hardly anyone. I had never seen a city so deserted. It turns out it was a holiday weekend to celebrate the patron saint of Ravenna. My hotel was very nice with a good location in the old town. My room had AC, a big bathroom, TV and even a fridge. It turns out there are no stations on the TV in English though but that is fine. After my tent cabin in Sorrento I was going to enjoy this.

It had been a long day but I was hungry and went in search of food. Everything was shut down. I am not sure if it was because it was Sunday or if it was festival related. I eventually found a pizzeria. My usual mushroom pizza was very good. While I was there they played Cher singing Walking in Memphis which brought back fun memories of us going to see her in concert .

7/23 I basked in luxury having had AC. Most businesses were again shut down for the holiday but the tourist sites were open. My first stop was the Basilica di San Vitale. It did not look like much from the outside, just old. Inside there are some nice floor mosaics plus 18th century frescoes on the walls. The incredible mosaics of the dome of San Vitale are 1400 years old and one of the last great works of art of the ancient world and one of Christianity's first. The mosaics have such intricate detail that they look like paintings.

Next door to the basilica is the Mausoleum di Galla Placidia. She was Queen of the Visigoths. It is tiny but the inside is amazing. The domed ceiling is covered with colorful, glittering mosaics. Cameras were not allowed so I was not able to get a good photo. The mosaics were really elaborate and elegant with lots of bling.

The old town is fairly small so everything was within a few blocks . The most famous former resident of Ravenna is Dante. His tomb was next to the San Francisco church. I never read Divine Comedy but Dante finished it in Ravenna before he died in 1321. The tomb was impressive and was set up to be a tourist attraction which it is.

Since it was a gorgeous day and most things were closed I took the bus to the beach. When I first made plans to come to Ravenna I thought it was right on the beach since that is where it is on my map. The city has a port but it is set back from the coast so the bus ride to the beach was about 30 minutes. It gave me the chance to see the town. Outside of the old town, Ravenna could have been Greensboro or any other medium sized city. Once you leave the city there is nothing but corn fields, vineyards and hay fields. It was a stark transition between city and country.

The beach was in a nature preserve. There were a couple of campgrounds but next to no stores and just a few houses. The beach reminded me of Viareggio walking through the pine trees but luckily the walk in Ravenna was shorter. The pine forest was not as lush as Viareggio but again there were dunes and a total lack of development. The beach was named Lido di Dante, again celebrating the writer. There were no beach chairs but I still managed to finish the Coben book, The Innocent, and it was another great one. I picked up an Alexander McCall Smith book next .

My hotel was on Via di Roma and I think that must be the 4th or 5th time I have stayed on a Via di Roma. I guess all roads do lead to Rome. The streets are interesting in Italy since most are named for people. Underneath the name of the street on the street signs is the field of the person and when they lived. I think it is cool to have streets named after economists, teachers, etc. since I don´t think that usually happens in the US.

7/24 I opted for a different beach today and went to the Lido di Classe which is just south of Lido di Dante. At some point I realized we had passed my beach. I never saw the water or anything that looked like a beach stop. It was not all bad though. We next went through the town of Cervia. What a beautiful town. Cervia looked a lot more upscale than the two Lido beaches. There were nice hotels, tree-lined streets and the whole city was clean and looked like fun. I wish I had stayed there.

Eventually the bus worked its way back to Lido di Classe and I got off at the correct stop. It was a very, very long walk just to get to where the beach started. Then I walked and walked and walked some more. All of this is through the pine woods since it is just like Lido di Dante but they are separated by a river. I finally got to the beach and was ready to collapse and read.

Classe was once the leading port on the Adriatic but it´s river silted up in the 9th century and it never recovered . The only evidence of Classe´s ancient past is the Basilica of Sant Apollinare from 549.

It was quite windy today and I was getting sandblasted. When I could take it no more I decided to wade across the river and catch the bus at Lido di Dante since the walk to that bus stop was shorter. I had seen people wade across the river and figured I could do it. I just did not want to walk all the way back to Classe. The river is only a couple of feet deep so I made it without incident.

There are not many roads in the agricultural area surrounding the beaches so if you want to go from Lido di Classe to Lido di Dante it would be a 25 kilometer drive. However, I went from one to the other with the walk only being 7 kilometers. I do not think I have ever been to one beach and come back from another, especially ones that are 25 kilometers apart.

Back in town I found a nice place that sold individual pizzas as well as slices . It was in the pedestrian mall between my hotel and the bus stop. The pizza was really good and not expensive. It was casual too so I did not feel awkward eating by myself. After the pizza I could not resist the ice cream place across the mall and made a selection that cooled me off after another hot day.

7/25 One interesting factoid I came across is that Ravenna is a sister city to Dubrovnik, Croatia - one of my all-time favorite cities. I spent quite a bit of time at the one main Internet cafe trying to work on travel logistics for the weeks ahead to figure out where to go that might offer the best value. Then I headed back to Lido di Dante despite the long commute time. I finished the McCall Smith book, Espresso Tales, which was humorous and showed the deep knowledge of the author on so many different topics.

I visited the same pizza place but skipped the ice cream since I can see my body getting jiggly. It will definitely take a lot of work when I get back to turn things around . I might have to stay in Europe until I can get my body back in presentable shape.

Next to the pizza place was a realty office and I noticed the prices were roughly comparable to Houston prices. I wondered what people in Ravenna could do to afford places at that price. There did not seem to be a lot of white-coller jobs in town.

7/26 I continue to enjoy hot sunny days. I visited the cathedral which I thought was well done. It is not huge like some of the other cathedrals I have visited but it seems to fit the city well. One reason it may be less ornate and smaller is that it is centuries older than the other cathdrals. The sites in Ravenna are all from the 5th and 6th centuries.

There is a museum behind the cathedral which had some amazing pieces. The ivory throne of Bishop Maximian, a masterpiece of 6th century sculpture, and the Julian calendar were my favorites. Close to my hotel was the Basilica di Sant Apollinare Nuovo . It had more stunning mosaics. The size and beauty of the mosaics just floors you. Ravenna bills itself as the city of mosaics for good reason.

What is so interesting to me is the number of buildings from about the same time period that are all of one style, have the most incredible mosaics and are spread out around the old town. Six of these buildings are UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The location of the buildings hints at Ravenna´s glorius past when it was once considered the heir to Rome. For a time it was even the leading city in Western Europe.

The history of Ravenna makes you wonder why people have never heard of it. It was Venice before Venice was invented, an urban island in a lagoon with canals for streets. Surrounded by that lagoon and broad marshes Ravenna held a strategic position and was Rome´s biggest naval base on the Adriatic. The churches, adorned with the finest mosaics ever made, were built around 450.

The days after Honorius moved the capital of the Western Empire here in 402 were Ravenna´s best. A trademark of Ravenna´s churches is the campanile. Every church has a beautiful bell tower and almost all mirror the same style. Other churches in northern Italy have campaniles but I never was able to find out why every church in Ravenna has one.

7/27 I have now been in Europe for 2 months which is hard to believe. It sure does not seem that long. That means no gym for 2 months which has been very nice but Í have definitely noticed changes and not for the better. As I headed to the train station I marvelled at the churches in Ravenna. Do you realize that the incredibly gorgeous mosaics in Ravenna were made more than 1000 years before America was even discovered?

I´m off to my next destination on the trains that I love.