smalti

Home stretch.

Day 5

Breakfast at the hotel, then out to the Museo Correr, right in Piazza S. Marco. There was a Veronese exhibit which we enjoyed, then on to the main museum: civic exhibits on the lower floor, paintings above. We spent most of the day there, then glossed over the Nat'l Archaeological Museum and the Biblioteca in order to see the Palazzo Ducale before closing time.

All the rooms adorned with paintings. We got to the Great Council Hall, and were gaping at the huge Tintoretto when it got close to closing time.

We were given the bum's rush with everyone else and were hustled across the Bridge of Sighs and past the prison cells. We emerged into the courtyard and saw the Staircase of the Giants. Then back to the piazza.

That evening we had a light dinner at a trattoria called the Conca d'Or--just a small plate of pasta each.

We made an early night of it, as we were traveling early Friday. Later, with the window in our room open, we saw the rain begin.

Day 6--Homeways

One last breakfast, and then goodbye to Venice. We left in the rain. A very nice young woman from Bucintoro Viaggi came and helped us into a water taxi. She rode with us to the airport. The water was choppy in the bad weather, but we got a last look at buildings along the Grand Canal, and at islands in the open water.

Lucia got our luggage tended to at Marco Polo and saw us off to the gate as efficiently as we had been greeted on Sunday.

There followed a really tedious journey, and then we were home.

mowmow

Ravenna is an easy day trip from Venice or a stop-over on the way from Venice to Florence, which is what we did.

We took a morning train to Ravenna. The train station is right on the edge of the ancient part of the city, within easy walking distance of all the sights.

I had obtained a map of the site locations beforehand on some web site (Ravenna has its own) and had scoped out where we were going. There are good signs around to help you find everything, we didn't get lost at all.

There's a TI in town with free maps; you have to walk towards the main square to find it.

You can purchase a ticket at any of the sites that covers them all for the day. After we were sufficiently stunned by the mosaics, we took a bus out to Clase and visited the church there. The green colors in the mosaic are incredible. With all the sheep and flowers it was my favorite.

There was a nice cafeteria there so we ate lunch outside on the patio. The church is surrounded by a field that was blooming with wildflowers while we were there.

After we headed back into town, and visited a couple more places, we sat in the square in front of the train station eating gelato, caught our train on to Florence, arriving in time to check in and go get some dinner.

I don't think the day cost the two of us more than 30E, including gelato, not including the train and lunch, which we would have had to take anyway to get from Venice to Florence.

I don't think the train to Ravenna cost more than 15E or so. The train from Ravenna to Florence turned out to be a little 2 car commuter type train, very old, very quaint. We met an older Italian woman whose last name sounded the same as ours (English name) and we all thought that was funny. Between my decent Spanish (some ability to discern Italian) and her "little bit" of English, we made a lovely new friend.

She pointed out some Roman bath ruins along the way that looked spectacular.

Patrick, you have to make it to Ravenna. My 21 year old son loved some of the mosaics so much he purchased a big poster of one and it hangs in his apartment now next to the rock and roll band posters lol.

If I am ever there again with more time I wouldn't mind spending a night or two in Ravenna; it looked like an interesting town to explore.

clairej04

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