Ravenna

We spent the past two days visiting Ravenna, a city of art south of Venezia near the Adriatic coast. It's long history extends back to the Umbrian and Etruscans, then Romans, Ostrogoths, Longobards, the Venetian Republic, and now Italy. During the 4th and 5th centuries AD, it was the western extent of the Byzantine empire and it was during this time that it's incredible mosaics were created within it's various churches and baptistries. The city is a UNESCO World Heritage site and rightfully so. Think of 10 superlatives like - stunning, gorgeous - and magnify them 100 times and you might be close to describing the mosaics. The body of work is astounding and largely focuses on biblical themes. There are over 200 different colors of glass represented and millions of individual pieces. It's impossible to do justice trying to describe the mosaics. I'll post photos as soon as I can download them onto a computer. Don't miss Ravenna when you visit Bella Italia!! Today we are driving back to Berzo. We stopped in Parma along the way to have lunch and tour the city. I had Parma prosciutto and melon and it was simply delicious and fitting to enjoy it at it's source. Rachel bought another pair of shoes in Parma (5 and counting).....