Ravenna, Ohio... Nah Italy
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| Basilica of San Vitale, Ravenna Italy |
It was a nice train ride to Ravenna. I slept for half of it. The hotel was right across the street from the train station so we did not have to carry our (damn overpacked American) bags very far. We really need to review what the hell we brought with us for any future trips. To be fair, we are going to the land of “no shorts” to the land of “probably wet and cold” then eventually the beach with a splash of nightlife in there along the way. That makes for a lot of clothes. TIP plenty of AirBnB’s have washers. Pack belongings accordingly.
The woman behind the counter with the help of ringing an electronic bell that she unplugged to get behind the counter and then plugged the bell in behind her. Stu knows Spanish and studied Latin so together with hand gestures, he can generally make it work. After a round of charades in Italian I started heading towards our room. The nice lady in the lobby pointed the way. There was a button next to the door but something seemed off. I pressed the button and the lights turned off. Perhaps it was one of those elevators you have to wait for. No, it was a locked broom closet. I had passed up the stairs.
European 3 star hotels generally are a start below their American Equivalent. We have lovely pillows, 2 single beds from Father Knows Best or I love Lucy and a bathroom with a bidet! When I checked for bed bugs (please, don’t make me relive it), I remembered that much of Europe does not have fitted sheets. God I hate mangling fitted sheets. I sheet can take up an entire drawer when I am done with it. Imagine a sad art project in whatever pattern arranged on the sheet. OH, and we have AC. That is not too common for a 3 star hotel in Europe.
We dropped our bags and headed to the museums, or in this case, churches and stuff. The entire museum card was 12 Euros. Florence was like 80? Venice cost 24 Euros (we used it once). One thing lacking (a bit) about Venice is that, although there are great artists from there, in that era the Church was the greatest patron. At its height, it was a city of trade and ducats. Being less religious, Venice wasn’t a good town to put pasta on the table for the bambinos per se.
Back to Ravenna. It looks nothing like Ohio. No Dairy Queen or Burger King. The city is very old but you can’t exactly see it from the streets. It looks pretty average on Sunday. When we visited the religious sites, everything changed. We first visited a church off the beaten path. I think it was called Our Lady of the Tumors. Yes, that was the actual name. We missed the mass for the parishioners afflicted with boils. Damn, just when I needed some Clearasil. Next we went to the Basilica of San Vitale. Let me step back a sec. Ravenna was take over by the Ostrogoths. They were also Christian, but like those Mormons, had a slightly different spin on things. Their artwork shows Christ aging and human unlike the Jesus-as-God-on-Earth flavor preferred by the locals.
Out of fear of invasion from the North, the emperor moved headquarters from Milan to Ravenna in 402AD. As a result, the city contains some of the most incredible intact Byzantine mosaics spread among several locations. If you are travelling through Italy and need a slow but incredible day, you cannot skip this city. It was like I had dislodged my jaw upon entering these chambers. I cried, I thanked God for the blessing of enjoying what was in front of me, and the opportunity to see it. I understand God through art. I feel such peace and awe in the presence of something so monumental. I feel small. It feels intimate. I imagine that is what it is like to try and envision God. I also have trouble imagining that people didn’t have higher inspiration. These structures were built from love, sweat, and the glory to God. For these reasons, I love religious art. I wish I had taken a pre-renaissance art class. I can’t even remember where I saw what. It was all mind-blowing and dazzling in a way only the medium of mosaic can be. I’ll try not to blow up your inbox. I would love to show you so many more in person. Remember, these are not paintings but are mosaics.
This church was quite unusual. It is (possibly) the first piece of art to name the Three Kings, Balthasar of Arabia, Melchior of Persia, and Gaspar of India. The church is also believed to show the first artistic image of the devil. He is depicted as a blue angel behind Christ in the parable the Sheep and the Goats.
Loving this, THANK YOU!
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