Ravenna and San Marino

Today was our group trip to Ravenna and San Marino, and after waking up bright and early to meet at the caffè at 7:40 (even earlier than we have to meet for our classes), the 28 of us students, the 5 TA's, and the professor all loaded into a bus and headed to Ravenna. In case you didn't know (I know I sure didn't), Ravenna was the last capital of the Western Roman Empire. It was chosen for its location, which is very safe because of the water. It is also the site of the world's most impressive mosaics. 

Our first stop was the church of San Apollinaro Nuovo, a beautiful church with twelve columns, a ceiling dating back to 17th century, a floor that has been raised due to sinking floor, and the widest mosaics in the world dating back to the 5th century. Mosaics, we learned today, began as floor art, but in Ravenna in this particular church, the images they wanted to portray (of apostles and Christ and Mary, etc.) were sacred, so they really didn't want people walking on them. Mosaics are made of bits of glass, cut with a tiny little hammer. The colors are natural, and since they are the colors of the glass and not painted, they last forever without being restored. Gold was also widely used in these mosaics, and they way they did that was by sandwiching gold leaf between two pieces of glass. Then, these "tesserae" were assembled to make the pictures, in such a way that there was as much texture as possible, which makes them catch the light in a very remarkable way. These pictures don't do it justice, but here is the church.

The outside of the church. Traditional Christian architecture privileged the inside of the church rather than the outside, as the church is analogous to humans, whose souls are immortal while their bodies will die. The building is made of bricks, because Ravenna like other areas in this region is filled with clay but doesn't have much stone for building. 

First glance at the interior of the church. You see on the left and right the mosaics of the saints (women on the left, men on the right), and above them, you have prophets, and above them, scenes of the life of Jesus Christ. 

Look as much as you want, you won't find a crucifixion scene in this church or others that predate the 5th century. Apparently, these churches prefer having empty crosses symbolizing Christ's suffering, but don't ever depict him on the cross. 

After this church, we went to another one, which is important because Dante is buried there. The church had a name, which I've forgotten already since the guide told us that everyone just calls it "la chiesa di Dante" (Dante's church). This church is sinking, much like the entire city of Venice (apparently it's a pretty common problem), and the alter is actually filled with water. 

There are goldfish swimming in the water, but it's hard to see from the picture. It was a very creepy sensation, looking into this room. The water was incredibly still. 

Behind the church is Dante's tomb. In 1317, this father of the Italian language whose Divine Comedy essentially created the Italian language as we know it today and began popularizing writing in the vulgar, everyday spoken language rather than Latin. In Ravenna, he wrote Paradiso which, according to our guide, was largely inspired by the mosaics. Dante died of malaria in his 50's I believe, in Ravenna, and was buried there. He has a tomb in his hometown of Florence, but it's empty. I got pictures of it, but they're on my actual camera, so I'll have to wait to get home to post them on the blog. 

The piazza of Ravenna is adorned with two columns which were from Venice. Venice was quite powerful back then, and had a lot of influence on Ravenna. This was because of the importance of salt. 

Finally, we saw San Vitale, the most famous church in the city and the little mausoleum behind it, both of which are uninteresting on the outside and spectacular on the inside. San Vitale is the most complete church in Ravenna, in that it is the only church there with its original dimensions. Despite its gigantic size and detailed mosaics, it only took about 22 years to build. Our guide playfully added that nowadays in Italy, you couldn't even get the permission to build it in that time. So, not bad! 

It's octagonal, based on the Byzantine architecture but demonstrating an interesting blend of both sides of the ancient Roman Empire. Central plan, eight-sided building, six meter dome with frescos dating to the 18th century, whereas the rest of the church is much, much older (fourth or fifth...I can't remember exactly). Emperor Justinian organized the project, though he never actually set foot in Ravenna. He's depicted in the mosaics. 

Justinian mosaic, with the assistant who actually did help with the church (Maximianus) depicted prominently. 

This is the inside of the surprisingly beautiful mausoleum behind San Vitale. 

Empty cross instead of a crucifixion. 

Christ is a shepherd. Who knew? Just kidding. This is directly over the entrance to the mausoleum. 

After lunch in Ravenna, we headed back to the bus and drove up a mountain to San Marino. San Marino, like Monaco, is an independent little country within another country. It is apparently the oldest republic in the world that still uses its original constitution, but did I mention it's on a mountain? The views were worth the drive, and all we really did there was have an aperitivo while admiring the Italian countryside from this non-Italian little country. 

The blue all the way at the back is the Adriatic. Yes, we were so high up, we could see it!

Finally, we headed back to Urbino and ate dinner at an adorable family-style restaurant outside of the city. So much food, and now I'm stuffed and ready for bed. Delicious though!

We started with prosciutto, melon, and various cheeses. The rest of the meal was if anything, even better: various pasta dishes for first courses, various meat dishes with sides for the second courses, and cake for dessert. Si mangia bene in Italia!