Urbino & Ravenna, Italy - Day 1 -April 1
Wow, what great places to see today! Our guide was Silvia
with ToursByLocals and we had been corresponding for years with all of the
canceled cruises and finally getting to go. Plus, changes in numbers of people
on the tour was chaotic. I worried about how she would be as a guide since we
had a few issues communicating and increasing costs of the tours. However, she
was fantastic, and I can’t speak highly enough of her guiding skills and
knowledge. Our driver was Catalini (or something like that)
Urbino has UNESCO World Heritage status for representing
"A pinnacle of Renaissance art and architecture, harmoniously adapted to
its physical site and to its medieval precursor in an exceptional manner.”
We were joined today by Roberta & John, Bob &
Phyllis, Heather & Matt, Horst & Mark and June. Fun group as always!
We started by driving past Ravenna and going to Urbino about
an hour and 15 minutes away. It was a beautiful drive past fishing huts with huge nets,
many fields of crops and green houses and then rolling hills with snow-capped
mountains in the distance. Silvia explained everything we were going by and
told us the history of the area.
Urbino was the birthplace of Raffaello, the great Italian Renaissance painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of composition, and visual achievement of the Neoplatonic ideal of human grandeur. Together with Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, he forms the traditional trinity of great masters of that period.
It was a walking tour that took us past a local market (wish
we’d had time to shop, €5 sweaters!) and then we went up a hill to see
great vies of the Ducal Palace and the area. There were some school kids that
were on a type of scavenger hunt, and they were running and playing. We visited
Raphael’s house, Raffaello’s Monument had some politicians speaking and some
local school kids playing some music and visited the Ducal Palace.
Ducal Palace was the home of Duke Federico da Montefeltro (1422-1482), military leader,
ruler and humanist patron of the arts, built a palace and maintained a famed
court here; one of the most important in Renaissance Italy. What a spectacular place.
Urbino is a beautiful walled city with narrow medieval streets.
We could have easily spent our whole day here visiting museums and having more
time for lunch.
We had time for a fast lunch, so we opted for pizza that was already made in this little shop that was full of locals. Very nice pizza and the crust was light and crunchy.
In Ravenna we started with Galla Placidia Mausoleum. Despite the name she was never buried there. The interior of the mausoleum is covered with rich mosaics. The inside contains two famous mosaic lunettes, and the rest of the interior is filled with mosaics of Christian and Apocalyptic symbols.
The mosaics are composed of glass tesserae cover the
interior walls of the vault, the lunettes and the cupola; the adornments are of
high quality. They were beautiful and very hard to capture in photographs. At a
glance you would think they were painted frescos rather than mosaics that were
painstakingly applied one stone at a time to create such beautiful scenes.
We next walked to the San Vitale Church which surpassed our expectations in beauty. Just jaw-dropping mosaics. Silvia told us the story behind each scene that we were seeing.
We then had some free time for shopping and everyone but us were taken back to the ship. We chose to stay back at the main square of Piazza del Popolo and take the Princess shuttle back to the ship later. We had a nice dinner sitting outside on the piazza and Greg had lasagna bolognase and I had ravioli that was stuffed with sage leaves in a light butter sauce. There were lots of outdoor market stalls selling meats, cheeses, olives, sun dried tomatoes, focaccia and more. We stopped for giant cannoli before going back to the ship.
We had a nice warm sunny day today so we really lucked out with the weather. Back on the ship we dropped our things and got something cold to drink and we took in the late folkloric show which was very nice. Domo Emigrantes had Violin, guitar, and percussion. Lots of humor and music from different regions of Italy.
Tomorrow, we have a 2nd day in Ravenna, and we are going to visit San Marino, which is not part of Italy, but their own country.
Urbino, Italy https://photos.app.goo.gl/QYesx4nywGpiuNHz7
Ravenna, Italy https://photos.app.goo.gl/FWXYicAqnbYJUfDP7
Of course, there were birds:
African Sacred Ibis
Black-headed Gull
Black-winged Stilt
Cattle Egret
Common Pochard - NEW
Common Shelduck
Common Tern
Common Wood-Pigeon
Eurasian Jackdaw
Eurasian Magpie
Gray Heron
Great Cormorant
Great Egret
Herring Gull
Hooded Crow
Little Egret
Mediterranean Gull
Mute Swan
Purple Heron
Pygmy Cormorant
Yellow-legged Gull
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