Up the Coast. One step at a Time

Ravenna, Commachio & Ferrara

From Cesenatico we travelled north towards Ravenna, a short distance which suits

Modified Coastlines

us, (Italy may take some time).  Going North is counter intuitive as we are starting to lose Summer and Autumn is upon us. Still very warm days in mid 20s and predicted 30s over the week. But we do want to visit Venice & Chioggia, being so close, enjoying the culture and history.
The land and sea have changed as we head towards the top of the Venesian Gulf. I'm likening it to the Firth of Thames. Extensive flat lands (long since drained sitting mostly below the canal level) lagoons and ancient canals going well inland. Many still navigable, undoubtedly essential for drainage.We are seeing rice crops and extensive cultivation of this very arable land though one would think ripe for inundation.

There appears to be extensive Oil production offshore with many rigs clearly visible from shore & tankers moored to offshore structures presumably loading etc.
The blurb pushes the Adriatic Riviera as golden sands but alas its Tahunanui Sands at best. Shore lines are highly modified with rock batters, groins and offshore break waters, and a zillion people in season. But they do have the infrastructure, importantly the bars and restaurants on the beaches, hotels directly across the road & tourist prices, but affordable.You don't need to go too far to get your drinks etc, in fact you don't need to go anywhere, just signal and order.

Rather dull outside

Ravenna is10 ks inland, but anciently was closer to the sea with a canal built to bring commerce to it. Ravenna boasts very early mosaics in its churches. Stunning vivid chromatic colours as good today as they were when first put up in the 5 Cent. AD. Significant as the mosaics have largely survived, giving an insight into how the people of the day visualised the happenings in their own history. The mosaics are a mix of the the founding of Christianity and its contemporary cults IE the Aryan church.This was eventually wiped out and the mosaics added to, encompassing the modern (500AD)  church thinking.

Amazing Inside

Fine detail was hard to achieve with mosaic and we can understand why frescoes (painting on plaster) became so popular, it being able to show stunning detail the mosaics seldom achieved, but frescoes typically only lasted a few hundred years so we have only very very rare examples dating as far back as the mosaics.

These sparkle & have done for over 1500 years.

The area being river deltas is well away from stone quarries with only a small amounts being used anywhere in the delta. Terracotta bricks, billions of them back

past 500 AD  of Roman origin are the building medium here. Bricks make for a dull facade, but none the less historical. Being built basically on silt a lot of the ancient buildings have settled up to 3M into the ground, continuing down still, with a few showing obvious deviation from the perpendicular.

Leaning tower of Ravenna

Ravenna kept us busy for the day and moved north to a camper paddock, a quick walk to the beach & small local holiday village, very quiet. We watched the locals using the traditional Fishing gurney, very prevalent large and small in this area. Fish was the staple food, all eating places specialise in fish but not for us I am embarrassed to say. The small sprats or sardines cooked every which way just don't appeal, even on the pizzas.

Very Quiet. Comacchio

Onto Comacchio, again brick everywhere, but old brick, and churches of course.
Its charm being the small canal system connecting the town, river and lagoon. I suspect that tourism is light here but the "I "site is well equipped and vying for more.

Quick Fact In Italy there are 4.75 people per church & 17.75 churches per priest.
 Just saying!!! & enough church bells to meet the worlds need for bronze into the next century. Ok I made this up but the amount of churches around is A LOT & when the bells go off... Holy hell what a din it can be.

The Trepponti Bridge from the 17th Century

For my intended irreverence I have received multitude punctures as penance. In Comacchio we stopped to read an info plaque, parking the bikes in a grassy area & when we took off again, noticed the tyres covered in burrs, removed them and realised we were going flat fast needing to dash for the motor home. Three flat tyres. That evening eventually found 10 punctures in the 3 tubes and  only 5 patches.

For my Blaspheme.

So it was into Ferrara town for a new tube and fitted to bike before we could set out for our day in Ferrara. More brick buildings and an impressive 9km inner outer defencive town wall with moat. The moat largely gone but the walls intact dating from the 1600 hundreds, and as always the Etruscans were here first, with an amazing discovery in 1920 of ancient 300-500BC un plundered necropolis's,(undoubtedly as it was well buried under estuary mud). Etruscans were the earliest known settlers with strong trading connections through out the area and across the Med.. Through history there was always talk of strong Etruscan connections, then in 1920  a stunning find of thousands of intact Necropolis. This allowed the archaeologists to put put it together.

Stunning Gold jewellery, Etruscan.

Unusually the local museum  at Ferrara has been able to hang onto the important finds, naturally it is now National museum of importance harbouring finds unequalled. The Etruscan art as usual is enlightening and I was taken with a little ornamental vase, a prised possession of the person buried with it to assist in the, albeit pagan, after life.......

Should impress great Aunt for Dinner.

                                                                          There is a balloon festival happening
here in Ravenna as we stay and with road closures etc we were unable to find our way back to camp. The colourful huge balloons were stunning with there mass launch blotting the evening sky as we drove around lost, till a pistol toting police man told me where to go in no uncertain terms, IE very precise directions to get round his blockade, and he was correct. We arrived back safely to a cold beer and food to plan our next move.
Real Fact: Through out Italy the signage is specifically designed to take you in circles then exit you out of town, never to return.