Ravenna

My weekend's primary activity was going to the seaside city of Ravenna. If you check out a map, it's east of Bologna and right on the Adriatic Sea.

The whole program met at 9 at the train station. The station was nearly a 45 minute walk, so it was an early morning for me. Luckily, I totally passed out on the hour and half train ride.

When we got there we met our tour guide who showed us around the town. By far the coolest thing I saw was Dante's tomb. He's buried right in Ravenna where he died, even though Florence threw a fit about it. For a few minutes our tour guide let us check out the pretty little hill covered in ivy with a marble stone on it that says "Here lies the bones of Dante Alighieri." Pictures were taken and appropriate noises of appreciation were made before she told us that his bones aren't actually there. The little hill is in fact a bunker where his bones were put during WW2 when Ravenna was worried a bomb might destroy his actual tomb, which was a white mausoleum-type structure a few yards away. In typical Italian fashion, no one wanted to remove the beauty of the lovely tribute, so they just left it there even the bones were moved back to the original tomb.

After four hours of touring, we went to this fantastic buffet lunch where I swear I ate my weight in pasta. At the apartment, I have to pay for all my groceries (this is the first time I've ever had to this...), so I'm pretty frugal. Lunch, however, was on the program's tab, so no one held back. The lasagna I had was absolutely out-of-this-world.

A bunch of people then took a bus to the beach. The Adriatic Sea was just breathtaking and we learned that the big waves we saw breaking on the shore were incredibly unusual; it's the first time all summer the shoreline hasn't been flat and calm. We all spent a few hours splashing around and taking naps on the sand. It was not a bad way to spend the afternoon...

When I finally got home at about 9 PM, I was too tired to do anything but take a shower and fall asleep. I slept until 10 this morning and I still feel like I've got hours to catch up on. I'm off now to do a little grocery shopping and work on some homework.