Thanks, Annhig. I'm reliving my trip through writing this. I think I meant TR's not TA's, haha

Here are pics of Ravenna. I took some in natural light and some with flash, but the color is very hard to duplicate, some looking too green, and some too blue.
Beautiful nonetheless:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/759dp2dneisf259/sBwCyXqzGa

It was an easy drive on an almost barren highway, and we drove right into the Centro, found our B and B, and got settled in.
The owner of the B and B is a beautiful, tall, light haired woman, Alessia, with a 4 month old, hungry baby. She shows us around while trying to appease the little one.

"Look at me," she said. "I'm trying to be professional..." with a shake of her head, as the baby vied for her attention.

Two hours later, we returned for supper after roving about the town. We dressed and went down to the beautiful dining room. There was our host, dressed for work, presiding over her restaurant in a very professional manner.
And what a beautiful meal, arguably the best we had in 5 weeks. Home made pasta, home made sauces, wonderful lamb in Tuscan herbs. And as we ate, the dessert cart kept making its way past our table, laden with tempting treats.

We debated which one we would try. When it was our turn, Tim jokingly said, "We"ll have one of each." Whereupon, the server took a big plate and put on it a spoonful of each and every heavenly concoction.

Talk about caloric intake, but they were so good that we couldn't help ourselves from tasting each one.
After that, a few laps around the town were in order. We joined the hordes of locals for the passeggiata along Via Matteotti, and it seemed we were the only tourists around.

The Centro Storico was entirely surrounded by a wall in the 15th Century, complete with a fortress, parts of which still remain.
The next morning, still full from supper, we went down for breakfast, and what greeted us but all the desserts we had the night before, only freshly made that morning!

There we met two Americans, father and son, who were doing a bike tour in the area. These two very fit dudes had the same trouble we had in resisting then succumbing to our decadent breakfast.
That was also the best value of our trip. The whole experience, including our room for the night, with air con, was $168. Cdn. Maybe we should keep that a secret!

Sansepolcro's Museo Civico holds in place the famous painting, Piero de la Francesca's Resurrection, so in the morning, we stopped in to the museum, and contemplated this perfectly balanced composition.

We both agreed we would love to come back to this town, and its surrounding villages, to explore some more, perhaps to witness the Palio Della Balestra, held annually on the second Sunday of September.

All too soon, it was time to move on.

Will Perugia be dark and brooding, like her past? Or will she show us her sunny disposition?

To be continued on a new thread as our journey takes us to UMBRIA, link to be posted soon.

This is wonderful...thank you so much for re-living your trip and taking us along. Beautiful pics,too. I just added Ravenna on the April must-do list!

--Annie

Really enjoying your report. It's so well-written and I like all the details of what you saw and also what you ate and drank (v. impressed by the idea of an ice cream crawl!). How frustrating your experience of Vicenza was, poor you - we haven't yet attempted it, it is on our list but sounds very difficult!

The Ravenna mosaics are also on our to-do list, so I particularly enjoyed your inspirimg description of those.

We visited Sansepolocro as part of the Piero della Francesca trail a few years back, just staying long enough to have lunch and see the museum. It sounds as though it's a nice place to stay too. If you are going back, I highly recommend the trail which we really enjoyed (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Piero-Della-...2561256&sr=1-3).

Good to hear you had 2 great meals at Trattoria Da Fiore - we live very near there & often go for a lunch of cicchetti or a plate of grilled seafood in the bar, but haven't yet eaten in the restaurant side.

mmm - I'm enjoying it too, especially those desserts for breakfast.

Thanks, Annie and Annhig, for your encouragement!

Caroline, I had heard of Da Fiore, but didn't realize there is the Trattoria, and there's the Osteria, which is the more famous one, I think.
But we enjoyed our meals, and thought it was a really fun atmosphere there.

You will enjoy Ravenna. Some-one on this board recommended it to me. I don't remember their name, but I owe them a thank you!

When you do go to Vicenza, just remember to be there in plenty of time before the afternoon closures.

Yes, the Osteria is the v. posh one. We haven't been there - I had assumed we'd try it one day but it seems to get mixed reviews, despite having a Michelin star.

Thanks for the benefit of your experience!

Very nice report! Love the food details. I'd like to know the name of the B&B in Ravenna..sounds like one to keep on file! Thanks for taking the time to write.

>>>so the chocolate bars that the Dante Center hotel in Lugano had given us on departing suddenly didn't seem like such a bad idea, faced with no food available until at least 5 pm. <<<

What type of train was this? Most that provide snacks in 1st have a snack bar and dining car.

>>>Will Padova disappoint or inspire? <<<

Did you visit anything other than the chapel?

ky, we had a 4.5 hour Frecciargento/Intercity journey a couple of months back with no refreshments - I think there was a trolley, but the trains were so crowded with people without seat reservations standing/sitting in the aisles that the guy gave up. On the way back the trolley did come round, but a week packet of biscuits was the best they could do. We'll take our own next time!

And the OP reports on Padua in another thread.

Hi ekscrunchy, I never mentioned the name of the restaurant, which is in Sansepolcro.
It is Ristorante Fiorentino, and the family that runs it also has a B&B upstairs, by the name of Locanda del Giglio, where we stayed.
As Caroline mentioned, a lot of people go to Sansepolcro, Monterchi, etc, in the area for the Piero Della Francesca trail, a good reason to go!

Kybourbon, always more to learn, always more to see! Thanks for the tips.
On Padova, my main focus in Italy is art, architecture, scenery, and food.
My husband's main interests are the food, scenery, art and architecture, in that order.
That means I sometimes have to compromise!

From Sansepolcro, we travelled on to Umbria, hence the continuation of my report under this new thread.
Thanks for reading!

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...l-ascolana.cfm

The name of the restaurant in Sansepolcro, again, is Ristorante Fiorentino, and the family that runs it also has a B&B upstairs, by the name of Locanda del Giglio, where we stayed.

Forgot to post these few pics of Sansepolcro, the Museo Civico, including restoration of a fresco in progress, call that one Meating Pork in the back alley, the resto and our breakfast!

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/3jveankr15hygcr/wnR5OnHlz3

What a great trip report - thank you! And the photos are great, especially the restoration of the fresco. Is that in Sansepolcro?

Thanks, rosetravels, yes that was in Sansepolcro. I think in most places you can't get anywhere near when the experts are doing a restoration. In any case, I was surprised they let me take a photo.