Today we hit up the two R's i.e. Rimini and Ravena.
At 8:00 we rolled out of Urbino for Pesaro. From Pesaro, we caught a train to the port town of Rimini which was 30 minutes north. When we first arrived Peter took us to two historically important stops. The first was a beautiful 15th century church which was decorated with the most ornate and expensive marble of the time. It was absolutely gorgeous, even though many of the pictures were destroyed, in addition to the old roof, when the Allies fought it out in the Alps during WWII. It's the Americans fault it was wrecked! After that, we saw a 2000 year old arch which was all that remained of the entrance of the once walled city. The history was pretty cool, but the market was even better. Hundreds of vendors were selling everything you could think of. I ended up purchasing a 3 euro jacket and 15 euro shoes which were made in china!
Around 1:30, we boarded another train for Ravenna where we wen on a guided tour. I could go on for a while about all the cool things that I learned but I'll stick with two and put up a bunch of pictures. First, the mosaics. I have never seen so many beautiful pictures made out of tiny pieces of glass and stone before. And the amazing part was that most of this came from the time of the Goths 1400 years ago!
Second, the city is really sinking! Somehow this is the result of the water eroding the silt and the ground compacting over time, but anyway. 1 church we went into was rebuilt 3 times in order to keep it operational. The first time they raised the whole thing and built a new one. The second time (500 years later) when the water table met the ground floor the builders decided that instead of raising the whole building, they'd just raise the floor and the pillars for the arches. Although this worked, and most of the city is currently protected by 25 huge water pumps, we could still see how hight the water rose on the original floor(5 feet!)
