La Republica di San Marino e La Citta di Ravenna

01 novembre ’07 alle 05 novembre ’07

On Thursday morning my friend and I departed for the Republic of San Marino, the third smallest country after Vatican City. It is located in north eastern Italy, approximately 100 kilometers south of the city of Ravenna. This small Republic was formed during the medieval period of Italy and always stayed a separate part from the rest of Italy. It originally was formed as a small Christian society.

The train ride to San Marino was smooth and uneventful. I do like the EuroStar trains, they are comfortable and smooth. We arrived in the city of Rimini located outside of San Marino. Upon our arrival we had no idea how or where to catch the bus to the city of San Marino. We eventually found out how and boarded a bus where it dropped us off somewhere near the top of San Marino. From there we had to walk a few kilometers to our accommodation which was a little ways from the city center. Our accommodation was quaint and seemed to only accommodate us. The owner was very friendly and we felt compelled to try his restaurant the following day for lunch.

The first night in San Marino we basically covered the entire town. It was simple and not as complex as I thought it was going to be. Lots of stairs, hills, and trees. It was a nice break from busy and dirty Firenze. San Marino was busy with lots of tourists, however, not international tourists, but mainly Italian tourists. It was a nice break and everyone seemed to treat us as Italian tourists, since we tried to use our Italian as much as possible.

The first full day in San Marino we went back to the city center where we visited the three guard towers of the city and hiked through the small woods of the city. The next thing we did was basically walk through the town maybe 7 times before heading back down to our hotel where we ate a fantastic lunch of grilled tuna and blue fish, with a perfectly matched red wine and homemade bread. After lunch we went back up to the town center and basically repeated again what we did earlier. The views from the top of the town were amazing and we definitely window shopped the rest of the evening.

The highlight of the night was that we were able to find the tourist information desk where we could get our passports stamped with the seal of San Marino! It was truly worth the 2.50 euro for the visa! San Marino was a pleasant visit, however, we should have made arrangements for one night instead of two, but it was pleasant to relax and take our time.

Saturday, we departed back for the city of Rimini and boarded a train to the city of Ravenna. I love the trains here in Italy. They are efficient, but not always fast, cheap and area always running.

We arrived in Ravenna around 3:30pm and checked into our hostel called Ostello Dante, a member of Hostelling International. We both are now members and for a year we can stay in these hostels for relatively cheap…yeah?

Alright, so Ravenna was definitely a city that I would love to live in. It clearly was a family oriented town and full of friendly people. The city was full of ancient history and mosaics. We bought a student pass to five of the most popular churches with mosaics in town. We visited three of them and found them utterly breathtaking. The mosaics were beautiful and full of history. The city itself was exciting and easy to explore. The center of town is surrounded by pedestrian only roads, which were always filled with residents cruising the streets. That evening we strolled down Via Cavour, which was lined with multiple high end stores, and every single Italian was wearing black. I really stood out amongst them wearing my north face coat….I was the only one not wearing wool!

In addition to enjoying myself in Ravenna, we met two Mormon missionaries who had been in Ravenna for three months. To my surprise they hardly knew any Italian, and had no immersion of cultural awareness of the Italian culture, and they were going to be there for two years! It was amazing and astonishing that they were there in a country where Catholicism was number one. Also, I was amazed that they had to be in by 9:00pm each night. Interesting. (Here is a photo of a crypt that was filled with water and gold fish, the church is the one below this photo)

The next full day we visited more of the churches and rode the free bicycles the city gives to tourists and its residents. We covered a lot more ground and saw a lot more than if we were on foot. We went to church in one of the several cathedrals and were amazed at how many Jesuit houses there were throughout the entire city.

Ravenna is definitely one of my favorite places that I have been so far in addition to Southern Tuscany. It was nice to not be in a large group and to really experience Italy without always being mistaken as Americans right off the bat.
(Here is Dante's (the author) tomb)

The trip back to Firenze was an interesting experience. Instead of taking a direct train home around 4 in the afternoon we chose to take a bus to the town of Faenza and then connect to a train to Borgo San Lorenzo and then take a train from there to Firenze. This was actually a nice little side trip in itself. The bus ride was easy and a forty five minute trip outside Ravenna. We then boarded a train from Faenza to Borgo San Lorenzo. I really enjoyed this part, because the train, which consisted of only two train cars, passed through mountains and small little villages that looked like they came from picture books. It was great to see this side of Italy. Fall colors were in full bloom!

Enjoy the photos!

Also, before I left for San Marino, I finally bought a wool coat. I will post those photos as well. Its nice, a blend of cashmere and wool, dark blue, and I bought a nice “traveling” hat to go a long with it. With my hat on, it looks like I could be a friend of Dick Tracy!
Here is my new coat and "traveling" hat:

Here is what I would look like with Argyle. Im not a fan of it...but i guess i could pull it off.