Ravenna

I must admit that when Al first suggested going on holiday a mere two weeks after returning to work and with me still looking for a job, I thought it was a bit indulgent even by our standards. He made two strong and valid points.

We had been in quarantine, not on holiday. We hadn’t chosen to stay in nor to be furloughed/have our contracts lapsed. It was not relaxing or without stress and it impacted negatively on our sleep and mental health. There was and remains a level of fear about the virus, but as there were less need for restrictions we could move forward.
There were no tourists and a once in a lifetime opportunity to see some places empty in a way they probably never will be again. This in itself would enable us to take advantage of places that were usually too full of tourists or too expensive, whilst also supporting those local economies adversely impacted.

High Days

When I thought about it, I knew it made sense. Many of you are probably also feeling bored of looking at the same four walls and streetscapes, no matter how lovely they are, after 3 months of lockdown. Just as we visited Ravenna and Modena when the within region restrictions were lifted to give ourselves a change of scene and a chance to do the exploring we came here for, so we also began to look further afield as the Regional restrictions were lifted. We have a renewed hunger for the outside world and all that it has to offer.

Holidays

We had previously planned to go on holiday for the end of June/beginning of July for my birthday and to attend an outdoor festival in Milan to watch Faith No More. Although the festival was not officially postponed immediately, Faith No More had already begun to cancel and reschedule the tour and the writing was on the wall for live music generally. As we were still in lockdown at this time thoughts of our holiday drifted from our minds, until now…

As we started to look there seemed to be a lot of deals and discounts around, which meant we could search in areas that are usually completely out of our price range. This included the beautiful Cinque Terre on the Ligurian coast. We had looked at this area for our honeymoon and even with that expanded budget it was far too expensive for us. However, at the moment, many holiday operators and holiday homeowners are desperate to rescue their summer season and so bargains are aplenty. We found a very reasonably priced air B&B with air con in a central location, Rapallo.

Having taken the leap and decided on a holiday in Liguria we were delighted that although some things were not open or not running this was more than made up for by the fact we pretty much had all the main sites to ourselves, give or take a handful of brave French or Swiss adventurers. There was so much to see, do, eat and drink that I am putting the details in separate posts which I will upload over the next couple of weeks and link here.

In fact, it was so successful that when we returned, we immediately booked a shorter escape to another of Italy’s usually tourist stuffed treasures. If you are thinking of new adventures and a change of scene, while boosting a local economy and taking a silver lining of sorts from the last few months, I highly recommend it.

To celebrate being able to travel within the region and to get a change of scenery we decided to go to Ravenna, a small city in Emilia Romagna close to the Adriatic Sea, about an hour’s drive from Bologna. We wanted to get out and see other towns and the car needed to have a decent run before it was pressed back into commuter service this week.

Why Ravenna?

We chose Ravenna because we have a friend, Esther, who lives there that we have been threatening to visit for some time, before the lockdown made it impossible. It is believed to be more than 2000 years old and is the spot where Julius Caesar gathered his forces to cross the Rubicon. Eight of the churches form part of a UNESCO world heritage site regarding Early Christianity. It’s famous for the ornate mosaics that adorn several its building interiors and for being the location of Dante’s tomb. Although Museums and Galleries are now allowed to open, many in Ravenna had chosen not to, so we were not able to see inside many of these sites on this visit.

Out in the Countryside

On the way to Ravenna we chose to go off toll road so we could see more of the country. Once you get beyond the hills of Bologna (part of the Apennines) the land opens into a huge flat belt called the Po valley. You could see for miles. When you see open land like this it reminds you why hedgerows are such a distinctive feature of the British landscape. Here are scant hedges, walls or fences. There are some border ditches, but this may be as much for irrigation as land ownership demarcation. The land here is agricultural as you might expect from a flat plain. There were farms all along the route with groves of fruit trees or vineyards. The roads here are slower particularly when you go through towns, so our journey took an hour and a half.

Quiet streets

Ravenna is an incredibly beautiful city and despite the museums and galleries being closed we were perfectly happy walking around the streets, which were noticeably quiet and uncrowded. It meant we could take our time looking at whatever we wanted and taking photos. I didn’t think to record everything I was taking photos of so some of my images are not captioned. We assiduously practiced social distancing and wore our masks while we were walking around. We were very conscious that we did not want to risk getting the virus at this stage nor spreading it here. Esther is keen to travel to see her father who is back home in Holland as soon as possible so like us she did not want to take any chances.

Lunch

Obviously, we couldn’t possibly have visited without stopping to have lunch. Esther recommended a restaurant and we went to see if we would be able to get in. Ca’ de Ven is a lovely traditional enoteca, cantina and restaurant. We were able to get a table immediately because it was quiet. Our masked waiter led us in, past other masked staff some with full face shields. Inside diners sit at long wooden tables in a large hall with a vaulted ceiling. The tables, which would usually seat six comfortably were marked with where you were able to sit to maintain social distancing. We had a whole table to ourselves, two on one side with a chair between and one on the other. Al and Esther chose from the specials menu while I chose something traditional. I could have kicked myself afterwards because I have been craving fish for ages, but it’s quite expensive to buy in Bologna and this was the perfect place to have had some. Never mind, the meals were delicious as was the wine. Esther told us that this restaurant was usually busy with office staff on their lunch breaks and she was surprised to find it so empty on a weekday.

This has been in line with our experience of Bologna, things are opening back up, but many people are choosing to stay away. I think most people have dropped the eating and drinking out culture that is their usual mode and like us they are selecting maybe one or two venues a week to meet up with a small group of friends for a drink or a meal. The rest of the time remaining at home and keeping up with other protective measures.

The Beach

We decided to go home via the beach as we had not seen the sea in 5 months. It was trickier to get to than we had anticipated and necessitated driving through a foul smelling Industrial zone. Beaches here are still closed but were merely going to ease our minds with the sight of the swell, not planning on a dip. In our experience many Italian beaches have resorts where you need to pay for beach access or a sun lounger, there doesn’t seem to be very much in terms of the public access beaches we are used to in the UK. We parked up when we could see signs and walked along an access road though a lovely wood. At the end of the road there were two resorts, but with cordons across their entrances. There were, unsurprisingly, not many people around and most of those we saw were employees of the resort restaurants gearing up for evening service. The beach itself was sandy and seemed pleasant enough, but out to sea there were industrial buildings and rigs. Nonetheless, the waves pounded gently on the shore and together with the salt air gave us the familiar reassurance we were looking for, so we headed back to the car and home.

Tag: Ravenna

High days and holidays