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The 6th and 7th century Byzantine mosaics in Ravenna were amazing. They predominantly illustrate stories from the Bible with the odd Roman/Byzantine slant. The great thing was that with one exception all the churches which held mosaics were in the centre of town. We took far too many photos of them so hope the photos in the blog aren't too tedious. We finally felt that we were travelling too as we stayed in the Diablo Hostel for a couple of nights - with the smell of stale smoke and the potential for a lot of noise (although thankfully it wasn't particularly busy).
The journey from Ravenna to our final Italian region, Friuli Venezia Guilia, surprised us in that it comprised 280 kms across a vast, flat plain. The first half of the journey was so slow due to the weight of traffic and dearth of overtaking opportunities that we threw budgetary caution to the winds and got on the (tolled) 'autostrada' just outside Venice. As we approached our destination, Cividale del Friuli, the snow-capped Julian Alps grew larger, as did the eastern extent of the Italian Dolomites.
Cividale had a beautiful medieval old town and the B&B we had chosen (based purely on cost) turned out to be wonderful. There were two Dutch guys staying for a few days too who were good company. Also, we finally got the bikes off the car, cleaned them up and did a couple of 40 mile spins up and around the Slovenian border. This included part of the last Stage of this year's Giro d'Italia. It's a big wine producing area so most of the valleys are full of vines. Obviously we had to sample some of the goods too - really good.
As this is going to be the last Italian entry, we thought we'd list a few of the things that have struck us during our 5 weeks here:
i. Every church tower has bells and they are chimed frequently, if not musically.
ii. Italians don't seem to do (low season) camping under canvas.
iii. Almost all campers were German around the Lakes; and French in Cinque Terra - probably not surprising given the relative vicinity to each country.
iv. Speed limits don't seem to mean much.
v. Petrol is expensive - even Switzerland was cheaper!
vi. You wouldn't have good career prospects if you specialised in replacing worn-out indicator bulbs.
vii. Bicycles are de rigueur in Ravenna.
viii. You never seem to be far from an Italian with a strimmer.
ix. Italian food has stayed true to its roots - other types of cuisine don't seem to be very available (if we exclude McDonalds).
x. An 'insalata mista' seemed to always be lettuce, tomato and grated carrot.
xi. Fiat Pandas abide.
xii. Black & white lines across a road are road markings; not, it seems, zebra crossings.
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