November 7, 2011

So on Friday we went to Ravenna. We had to meet the bus at 6:30 in the morning and drive for two and a half hours. Ravenna is on the east coast of Italy, somewhat close to Venice. It is a lot different from the other Italian cities that we have been too. Ravenna is a lot newer, many of its buildings were bombed in World War Two and newer buildings were put up as replacements. However in Ravenna we visited some of the oldest churches in existence, I think some or all of them might be UNESCO world heritage sites. Ravenna was the last capital of the Roman Empire and was controlled by the Byzantines. The first church we went to was built in the 4th century and has in it some of the most famous mosaics in the world. The other churches and one of the tombs we went to also had very famous mosaics in them. These mosaics are huge, much bigger in real life then they appear to be in books. They are also much more spectacular in person, they are amazing, they sparkle and shimmer, pictures do not do them justice. I really enjoyed going to this city, although there were tourists, it was significantly less touristy than Florence, it seemed to be a very quiet city. While there we also visited Dante's tomb, he is very important to the Italian culture, he helped to found their official language and flag through one of his books.

We had a group lunch while we were there. To start we has penne pasta in a bolognaise sauce, followed by a veil cutlet with potatoes (normally I would never eat veal but I felt I had to), and a coffee (espresso) to end. The lunch was very good, even if we were eating baby cow.

On the bus on the way home we had an 'exam' although it was really more like a quiz. I did pretty good. We got to mark our own tests, which I found questionable. When we got back to the hostel some of the group decided they wanted to go to the discotec space club, which is the dance club that the cast of Jersey Shore went to when they were here in the summer. The people who decided to go eventually convinced everyone in the group to go, including myself. Although I had my reservations and I didn't really want to go I went anyways and had fun. It was good to go out as a group and quite fun. I think maybe we should go out one night when I get back, just to see what it's like. The next two days we had off for free days so a bunch of the group decided to go to Venice on the train, so they were quite tiered in the morning. On the free days I didn't do much just walk around and shop. Last night, Sunday night a group of us walked to the other side of the river in Florence to a look out point where we could see the night lights of the city, it was very pretty although a horrible climb up the hill.

To day we walked again to the other side of the river where we were introduced to our next studio project, which is to design a square in front of an old church. Because it is the first monday of the month and on this monday a lot of things are closed we didn't have much to do in the morning but to get familiar with the studio site. This area is more for locals, there is a art school there so there are a lot of students that frequent the square and not a lot of tourists. While there Morgan and I were standing on the sidewalk outside a cafe a strange short man with a beard and a toque walked by and growled at us, it was hilarious, he walked by a second time and growled again. I now refer to him as Growling Man or Growls-a-lot.

After that we met up with a tour guide who showed us around and told us lots of interesting history about the city. She was a very good tour guide, I think she is either Australian or British and works also as an art restorer. I was thinking that it would be a fun job to be a tour guide. After lunch we went back to our side of the river where we went to a church/museum that has many important sculptures, some by Donatello. We then walked by some interesting and important buildings, including Dante's house and then we went into the second biggest church in Florence where Michelangelo and Galileo's tombs are.

For our group lunch today we had penne pasta in a rose sauce, followed by very thinly cut roast pork in gravy with potatoes, and to finish coffee (espresso) and dessert, we were allowed to choose our own. I chose and apple and walnut custard pie, it was soooo good. The entire meal was very good, one of the best if not the best that I have had so far I think.