We have been a bit busy going places and trying to keep cool! Temperature hasn’t been below 34 degrees since we arrived here.

We had a great day in Ravenna which is famous for it’s mosaics in the cathedral and churches and they were stunning. The whole town dates back 2000 years and it is UNESCO listed.

The Cathedral , San Vitale , was rather ordinary from the outside but inside…WOW! The mosaics on the floor and ceiling date back to the 5th Century and the 18th century frescoes were pretty stunning too. Worth the 9 euros to enter! There was a huge amount of detail , colour and rather intricate designs on every surface , it was amazing.

Next stop was the Basilica di San Francesco. Although the inside was not much, the interesting thing was the mosaic tiled crypt floor which was flooded with water. Worth seeing!

Last Church stop was St Appollinaire Nuovo with 2 side walls completely covered in mosaics from the 6th Century.

We had a good time wandering around and lunch was the traditional food of the area, a piadina, and it was delicious.

We found our “Brunettis” here in Ferrara so Sunday mornings have been spent gorging ourselves with Bombas filled with custard or nutella! No lunch required!

We had wanted to go to a nearby place called Comacchio , a 17th Century village known as “little Venice” due to all the canals that run through it. It sits on a lagoon and the famous dish from the village is eel cooked whichever way you like .No , we didn’t eat there! The “Trepponti” or 3 bridges (it spans 2 canals and has 3 legs, was rather cute. It was built in 1638 and was the fortified gate of the town.

Because we were near the coast we decided to take our bathers and hit the water at one of the “lido’s”, Lido di Spina and we went to the “Bagno Hawaii 1986, one of those beaches you see in Italy with miles of beach umbrellas and deck chairs! The Bagnos are usually family owned and you pay for your “piece of sand”. It was a hot, humid , overcast day , not a lot of people, and we didn’t pay a thing! After a relaxing swim and sit on the beach, we headed to Port Garibaldi for lunch where Greg’s mission was to find Rhonda her Spigola”. And boy did he succeed , it was delicious!

We have been having some great local food here in Ferrara. We had a memorable meal at Trattoria deil Noemi in the back streets of the Jewish Quarter. We started with a plate of 3 year old proscuitto , with piazini, light and fluffy delicious fried things, then capelleti al ragu , pumpkin filled ravioli with a bolognase sauce , again delicious, and dolci was a torta tagliette, an almond tart topped with dried pasta, and tenerina , the traditional chocolate cake from the region. We walked home via the castle and it was pretty stunning at night.

We also did a day trip to Modena, UNESCO listed since 1997. It is the home town of Ferrari , Maserati, the balsamic capital of the world, and the home town of Luciano Pavarotti. Piazza Grande with its magnificent Duomo was stunning, more so on the outside. It was founded in 1099, and the Ghirlandina Tower next to it was completed in the 14th Century as the Bell Tower of the Church and a defensive lookout. The Piazza Grande has been many things over the years, a market place on Saturdays, it housed the gallows , the chopping block, and unidentified corpses were hung from the gallows for identification. Nice! It seems a lot of Italian towns have an “umbrella street”, but no one seems to know why!

Of course Greg had to wander around the Albinelli Market place. We had lunch there and it was the “typical sandwich of Modena”, a panini with mortadella, parmigiano, and balsamic vinegar and it was delicious!

The Palazzo Ducale, home to the Dukes of Este was stunning.

Yesterday , the temperature was going to be 37 degrees , so we thought the best way to keep cool was to go for a drive! We visited 2 quite lovely medieval villages. The first one was Dozza, called “The City of Art”. We wandered through the cobbled steets and looked at all the murals painted on the walls of the houses. Every 2 years 200 plus artists from all over the world come to the village to create their artwork in the “open air gallery”. It really was very pretty.

Second village was Brisighella , the “City of Olive Oil and wine”. Again a very pretty little cobblestone medieval village and nice to wander around with no crowds.

So now it’s time to say arrivederci to Ferrara and we are heading to cooler weather and Lenzerheide in the Swiss Alps for 4 days to attend the wedding of Claudio and Sandra. We are looking forward to seeing our Swiss Family again.

For those who know us well, you will be surprised to hear that today is our first AFD as we have a long drive tomorrow!!!!!!

So it’s that time again, not for a drink though.

Ciao ciao

Greg and Rhonda xx