Highway to Hell/Stairway to Heaven (Bologna & Portico di San Luca)

As usual, my dear reader, a long day is followed by a more relaxed one. Or as the Italians say, a fat Pope follows a skinny Pope. I am not commenting on Francis or Leo btw. 

After spending 12 hours away from the beautiful Bologna yesterday, we decided to stay close to home today to revisit some sites that we were not able to see completely and check out some which we hadn't managed to prioritise.

First stop today was the Mercato delle Herbe, a market on the opposite side of the Piazza Maggiore to the other mercato we visited a few days ago. I had high hopes of fresh food and vegetables. While my hopes weren't dashed, they weren't quite met either. The market was smaller than I expected. True, there were many stalls selling fruit and veg but only one shop for pasta, bakery and cheese. There were a few stores that were the equivalent to a delicatessen at home and also a good fishmonger.

Mercato delle Herbe.

Sadly, no espresso. We left through the back door expecting something different, but no. There were a few different providores, mainly butchers, but no cafés. We had passed some on Via Rizzoli and walked back towards them, but they were crowded or had no place to sit. Back to Piazza Maggiore for a coffee and pastry in the shade with the locals, (the tourists were all on the other side of the café, baking in the sun), with a view of the statue of Nettuno.

Neptune.

In our down time when planning yesterday's excursion to Ravenna, we also looked in the opposite direction at Modena, the home of balsamic vinegar. The problem we faced, in trying to avoid an organised tour, was the Balsamic Houses were well away from the railway station. Then I found that the Giusti house, the originators of balsamic vinegar, have a tasting room in Bologna. Just off the piazza. Exciting.

So good and so amazing.

The tasting room was less than a 1 minute walk from where we were sitting, so over we went. There was a group of 4 or 5 people in the main area but we were soon welcomed by someone and whisked away to a smaller space to commence our tasting. Libero. Cool.

We were walked through a brief history of the company and how they make the balsamic and the extensive range. Seriously.  Flavoured with truffles, strawberries or figs, aged for 5 years or 25 years, suitable for salads or meat or cheese or used on ice cream. It was mind blowing. And so wonderfully tasty. It was exciting to discover that Giusti balsamic is available in Australia. While there are a number of outlets, mostly online or interstate, if you're in Sydney, David Jones is apparently a stockist.

Our little corner.

Our next port of call was the Basilica San Pietro that we had attempted to visit previously. We had originally waited for the opening time and the doors had remained closed. Today the doors were open. Another spectacular church. This time featuring Lombardi's version of the Lamentation over the dead Christ. If you have attended closely to our travels, dear reader, you will have seen the wailing Marys by Niccolò; this is Lombardi's version some 70 years or so later. I'm no art critic, you decide which is the better.

Lombardi's version.

Then it was time to dodge the street canvassers who just wanted us to sign a petition to say we are against drugs. Every time we walked past them. Even though they couldn't decide if we were Italian or not. They did ask.

A side altar with optical illusion of size.

With our treasure of Modena balsamic stored away, we headed back to the Palazzo dell'Archiginnasio that we had originally visited with our Bolognese lecturer. The door to the university library had been closed and so we wanted to see this since it had promised so much and we love a great library.

We marvelled at the more relaxed pace and lack of crowds today and headed back to the main piazza to skirt along the basilica, under the porticos and into the university, lined with all the shields of past scholars. Up the stairs and to the door of the lecture hall that houses the library. We were met by the gatekeeper who demanded our ticket which we produced, explaining the library had been closed the day we had originally entered and so we were returning to see what we had missed.

And I haven't removed anyone from this photo.

We were let past and into the hall to go to the door to enter the library ... to find out that the only difference this time was the wooden door was open and we could see through a grill. Inside were vast shelves of ancient texts, row upon row; the smell of the archived wisdom was tantalising ... so near and yet so far. We could only look through the grill. One wonders why the wooden door was shut on the first day?Anyway, glad we weren't required to pay another entry fee for such an underwhelming experience.

I've seen better.

After that, it was back to our hood to do some Aldi shopping (wine time) and head home for some domestic duties in readiness for our departure, day after tomorrow. Interestingly the Aldi footpath had attracted a number of young men that would/could be intimidating for some people, even more so at a later hour. It is easy to see why some European countries are struggling with the concept of migration.

They are very political in Bologna.

Another Nicolò sculpture, in the Piazza Maggiore.

Dinner tonight was the feast from our Mercato shopping expeditions.

Wednesday

Our last full day in Bologna and there is still plenty to do. With an eye on tomorrow and the 6 hour train trip to Bari, I wanted to get in some walking. From our window, visible high on the hill, is the Sanctuary of the Madonna of San Luca. It's a basilica, of course. I'm not sure there is a church in Bologna that hasn't been bestowed that title by one pope or another.

Our destination for today.

This morning, the basilica on the hill glowed in the early sunlight. A welcoming sign I thought, Jayne suggested it was a warning to stay away. The walk to the basilica from our apartment is a little over 5kms. The first half is flat, the second half is not. We set out just after 10am. It was slightly cloudy and cool. Good walking weather. Jayne was only doing this because I had encouraged her. She will say otherwise.

Porticoes as far as the eye can see.

The start of the climb.

The walk through the suburbs was uneventful and soon enough we were at Meloncello, the base of the climb through the longest unbroken system of porticos in the world. It was steep from the outset. Each portico was dedicated in memorium to, I assume, people of significance, or those from wealthy families. Once upon a time, each portico came with a fresco. They were very few and far between today.

Fresco and dedication.

Interspersed every 100 metres or so were 15 chapels dedicated to the rosary. A good reason to rest on the journey to the summit, some 280m above sea level.

One of the chapels

The walk Portico di San Luca is considered to be a Marian pilgrimage. Certainly we saw many people walking to the basilica. There were also many people using it as exercise. The number of people who jogged past us was, at times, disheartening. The road route has been used in many of the grand cycling tours and this year was the stage for the single day cycling classic Giro dell'Emilia. As was evidenced by the pro cycling graffiti on the road. There were plenty of cyclists taking on the hill while we walked under the UNESCO porticoes.

It was Nairo Quintana's final race.

Jayne declared the basilica itself not worth the climb and insisted I find out the number of stairs involved. AccordingGoogle the answer is 489, but she believed there were more. But I walked for the view which was somewhat compromised by haze over Bologna although still impressive. 

Inside the basilica were the usual adornments, lavish side altars, a massive dome with fresco and an elaborate altar. You could also climb the dome but I didn't believe the view would be any further enhanced so opted to stay on the ground.

The view of Bologna.

The Sanctuary.

The Marian icon.

A long shot of the altar.

The walk back to reality was quicker and less strenuous, but the first order of the day would be a celebratory beer. Unbelievably, the first bar that served draught beer and had a vacant table was next door to our apartment. Cruel. The beer was still welcome.

Now that we have our feet back on the ground you will have noticed dear reader that today we have two titles, one selected for me the other for Jayne. I will leave it to you decide who owns which song. Highway to Hell by that well known, overrated Australian band (how many chords?) AC/DC and Stairway to Heaven by true genii of rock, Led Zeppelin. Enjoy.

When we have eaten out in Bologna we have used the restaurant guide left by our host. The first night was an excellent choice, the second was OK, so we are looking for more tonight, Trattoria Valerio. It is in a backstreet not far from the apartment, but the key to this restaurant? They have house wine. Something that has been rare in the places we have visited this trip.

A local trattoria that was booked out. Once again we saw people turned away. The food was lovely. We had a zucchini, tomato and caper entree with olive oil and balsamic. Since it was our last night in Bologna we both had the traditional tortellini in broth. There was dessert, for the first time since we left Matt, some traditional. I had Bolognese hard cake with passito wine. No, it doesn't make a lot of sense. Even after eating it. And it didn't taste of passionfruit. Jayne had zuppa inglese which sounds much better than the English translation.

The house wine was delectable, the people were delightful and it was a 4 minute walk from the apartment. We will be sad to leave tomorrow.

Alla prossima.

Stay (Bolgna and Ravenna)

Hello again, dear reader. This post was meant to published last night, but after a very long day, we only had energy for red wine and cheese when we returned to the apartment. So today is a double episode. 

After our guided lecture of the hidden gems of Bologna, we opted for a quieter day. Also, we wished to avoid the San Petronio feast day crowds. In the morning, we visited the Mercato di Mezzo in the Quadrilatero District with the intention of having a coffee and buying some produce. Again, unlike Firenze there were no produce stalls in the market,  just pre-made food. The coffee was good though.

Rather than returning by the same street, we exited through the back door onto Via Pescherie Vecchie where there were fruit and vegetable shops, butchers, stores selling breads, cheeses and pastas. We sourced some lovely bread, tomatoes, cheese and of course, mortadella, Bologna's speciality, for tonight's dinner.

Then it was out into the Piazza Maggiore where the celebrations were in full swing. There were games and competitions happening all over the square. No one was admiring the Renaissance architecture. We dodged the crowds, all the way back to the apartment, to stow our groceries.

A frescoe in Santa Maria della Vita.

After a suitable period, we returned to the throng and made our way to the Sanctuary Santa Maria della Vita to view the "Lamentation over the Dead Christ" by Niccolò dell'Arca. It is a terracotta sculpture with the wailing Marys. We had walked into this church earlier in the week when we were exploring the Quadrilatero District, without realising its significance. (I keep wanting to make jokes about ignorant tourists but if you haven't read the previous post, you won't get the joke).

The dome in the church.

The dome above the altar.

The wailing Marys are extremely emotive and were a landmark sculpture of the time. Not just because of the medium, but because of the expressive faces. Niccolò created this amazing piece in 1463 when terracotta was not fashionable and such expressive faces did not exist in art. The flowing robes were particularly evocative. In fact, according to our lecturer, Bolognese parents used to threaten their poorly behaved children with a visit to the Marys to frighten them into compliance!

Upstairs there was a collection of artworks. Among them, a sculpture by Alfonso Lombardi, the Transit of the Virgin. Also in terracotta, but sculpted between 1519 and 1522. Again, it is an amazing piece and we had the spaces almost entirely to ourselves while outside, the tumult of festival activities continued.

The Transit of the Virgin

We crossed the Piazza Maggiore once more. The games had given way to a concert on the steps of the Basilica. The band members, some of whom were priests, were just warming up. I'm guessing they weren't a death metal band.

A quick swing back through the artisan markets to purchase a present and we were back in the safety of our apartment. The afternoon was spent researching our trip to Ravenna. Oh, alright, and drinking wine and eating cheese and those other lovely items we purchased in the morning. We are in Italy.

Hand woven scarves.

Ravenna

Ravenna is the home of Byzantine Mosaics. There are five main UNESCO heritage listed places to view the mosaics. Doing so, not as part of tour group, requires significant inside knowledge or dumb luck. We wasted much time trying to book tickets to see the five attractions. It was confusing, perhaps deliberately so, and in the end we conceded defeat and grudgingly purchased tickets to join a tour.

To purchase individual tickets, you were directed to the official web page. Once a date was selected, you needed to choose a time to start your tour of the five sites, which are sprinkled around various parts of the old town. Success at this stage was simple. The form then populated your next site to visit. No choice. You needed to request a specific time and tickets for every time slot were limited. Against each site was a time in brackets, eg (10 minutes). Later I discerned this meant the time period to walk from one site to the next, not how long you could spend admiring the mosaics. Then you would come to the Chapel of Sant'Andrea and Archiepiscopal Museum - no tickets available. Choose another date and recommence ad infinitum. Get the picture?

We caught the 9:05am train so that we could have a coffee and scope out Ravenna to visit places that were not included on our three hour walking tour. Three hours, just like Gilligan's Island. It was an omen. Trenitalia almost got it right and we arrived only 5 minutes late. I'm sure that's an the acceptable margin of error. 

A mosaic near the station.

After coffee and pastries in Piazza del Poppolo, we admired the columns allegedly reminiscent of Venice. Next stop was the church of Sant'Eufemia. 

Venice. LOL.

Beneath the church is the Domus dei Tappeti di Pietra, also known as the house with the stone carpets, a series of 14 floor mosaics, discovered in 1993.

The Dance of the Four Seasons.

Another section of floor.

The Crypt Rasponi and the Hanging Gardens were next on the list. Google maps said we had arrived but there were no hanging gardens to be found. We did see the tomb of Dante and a number of sarcophagi around the Piazza San Francesco. Inside the Basilica there was a crypt, underwater, with fish, but we're are unconvinced it was that of Rasponi.

The crypt.

Dante's tomb.

Basilica San Francesco.

There were several references to that well known English writer (adulterer, bisexual and committer of incest and all round good guy), Lord Byron. He spent some time in Bologna, sponging off a wealthy Italian lady and probably avoiding imprisonment in England.

From San Francesco, we returned to the main piazza for lunch and to burn some time before our 2:35pm  group met at the official tourist office of Ravenna. While enjoying lunch, our erstwhile tour guide of Bologna walked past. Jayne then postulated, could he be our guide today? Noooooooooo. Different companies, I assured her.

A sarcophagus near Dante.

Sant'Apollinare Nuovo

Our new guide struggled with her English and our group numbered 30 including the guide. Us and 27 Americans. While most gave up asking questions because it was too difficult to decipher the answer, the best of the lot was, "How do you know that?" Um, a lot of study, perhaps. Is it possible she was just making stuff up on the spot? Seriously.

In another notable moment in the tour, the guide was explaining the symbolism behind the mosaic portrayal of Jesus with a beard (the son of man) and Jesus clean shaven (the son of God) as the one true God. Out of nowhere, one of our tour group exclaimed "Amen!!" Remember the demographic of the group ... on a personal note I could have done without the Catholic propaganda.

The tour ticked off the five major sites: the Basilica Sant'Apollinare Nuovo, the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, the Basilica of San Vitale, Chapel of Sant'Andrea and Archiepiscopal Museum and finally the Neonian Bapistry.

The Mausoleum.

Each site is remarkable and awing in its own right. The mosaics are colourful, stunning and just amazing creations. My pictures can only capture the images on a small scale. To walk into a basilica and see the entire ceiling covered in small tiles, depicting scenes from the bible... well, you really need to experience it in person.

Basilica San Vitale.

The floor.

The three hours did not pass quickly and were exacerbated but a couple of group members who were sniffing and coughing their way through every step (not us). They should have worn masks, or stayed home or at least used a handkerchief. The other issue was the language barrier. Our guide admitted she did not get the opportunity to use her English often and it was obvious, and at times, caused us some mirth. Her pronunciation of 'tombs' as 'toms' caused much consternation, who are the Toms? some people questioned. 'Mosaics' was mispronounced as 'musics'. At one point she explained why we would not enter a particular church because it was Baroque and there were no 'musics'. What? Thought I. Baroque inspired a whole musical genre. Then I twigged, mosaics.

Sant'Andrea (no photos inside)

Neonian Baptistry.

The tour took longer than advertised and clearly, there were very few other people who had braved the individual booking procedure. Tour groups dominated the precinct and we reckon we could have visited each site in half the time. Generally we feel that tours give you greater insight and context but the delivery on this occasion was so laboured, you found yourself switching off from the commentary. We are not denigrating the guide's command of English per se - clearly our command of Italian is far inferior, but then, we are not fronting a tour for paying customers.

In any case, at the conclusion of the tour, we handed back our audio devices and headed for the train station to buy tickets for the return journey to Bologna, a duration of 1 hour and 12 minutes. We arrived on platform 2 to be informed that the train was running 5 minutes late - no drama. The platform became more crowded as the next announcement came through - now 10 minutes ritardo. More people arrived - 15 minutes ritardo... finally the train arrived and we settled in for the trip home. 

The sunset from Ravenna Station.

At each stop, we lost a little more time but we eventually came within 2 stations of Bologna and then, the train stopped. No announcement, no progress, no nothing. Then an announcement came that we were waiting for authorities to clear "unauthorised people" from the tracks - we would be on our way in 10 minutes. That scheduled time passed, then the same announcement was repeated and we were reminded that the train was not currently stopped at passenger disembarkation point - were people trying to jump off and walk home? Hmmm, perhaps we should Stay by Franki Valli and the Four Seasons.

Again we waited beyond the time advised and then, suddenly the train lurched forward and we made it to Bologna - well at least to the very eastern end of the platform. We alighted to find we had to walk at least 300 metres to exit the station and make our way home. Thank goodness we did not have luggage to contend with and we did not have prior plans or a dinner reservation. The journey that was to have been 1 hour 12 minutes stretched to 2 hours and 3 minutes.

Anyway, no one died (that we know of) and we made it home over 12 hours after we had departed in the morning.

Alla prossima.