I have written two drafts about the mosaics (three if you count the aborted first attempt), complete with carefully edited and select pictures.  Despite clicking on the Save option (I used the laptop),  both have been lost.  The first loss I didn’t repine about too much as I felt it gave me an opportunity for improvement. The second time?  Not so much.

As a consequence,  I am kicking the mosaic can down the road until I have a stable WiFi connection, sole access to the laptop and a goodly chunk of time. Fingers crossed, third time lucky!

When we arrived in Ravenna from Verona, our first impressions were mixed, if not indifferent.  Ravenna is smaller, less blingy and more mixed architecturally, although it has its share of nice buildings:

Around the covered market it is quite tarted up, but elsewhere the old, new, run down and restored cluster together; occasionally, a whiff of drains insinuates itself into the experience.

The food has been good and reasonably priced and the wine has been fantastic. There are fresh produce shops with an astonishing variety (and quality) of fruit and veg and the covered market has a huge array of cheese and cold meats.

Many areas are pedestrianised, although this does not stop cyclists and the odd e-scooter from weaving through those on foot. One issue with this is that the cyclists don’t necessarily follow the rules of the road, so motorised traffic may be one-way, but cyclists can be coming in both. This led to me nearly knocking someone off their bike as I tried to cross the road and collided with them. No-one hit the ground, fortunately.

They can also be quite aggressive on so-called pedestrianised crossways, travelling, mostly, at speed regardless of how much foot traffic there is. While it’s nice to see so many people on bikes, it would feel safer if there were a bit more clear segregation between all road users.

There are Roman walls buried under mounds of vegetation (some dating from the Republic), a Venetian Castle which is now a nice park and many, many churches, restaurants and cafes. Some have whimsical interiors:

Oh, and the remains of Theodoric’s Palace (and he is a rather important historical character, after all).

After navigating the local bus system, we spent some time on the beach. It was a short ride; I think I spent longer hacking my way through the intricacies of online payment than we did on the bus.

Long, sandy, gently sloping, warm water…

Right next to a large port with cruise ships, small container ships, a ferry, an enormous marina and a mile long mole.

Near the water’s edge there were loads of small clam shells and a lot of dead jellyfish. While I have seen jellyfish before (dead on the sand and live in the water), I haven’t seen such a variety of shapes, colours and what I can only call ‘jelly-ness’.

Unlike Verona, which was crowded all the time, Ravenna really gets going after 5-ish, when everyone comes out for the ‘passegiatta’, which is just SO Italian!

If Verona is the sparkly fashionista party shoe, Ravenna is the everyday office brogue. There are things we haven’t seen, so we would return, but only for a day.