September 24, 2023
Day 18: Comacchio to Ravenna
I fall to pieces
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Well that was a mess! Maybe we shouldn't have camped after all. I always say when touring that it's better for rain to fall overnight than while riding or cooking or whatever. After last night I'm ready to change my mind. I don't know how big the drops were when they fell from the clouds, but they filtered through the canopy of pines and hit our campsite in big splashy drops. The result was coarse and rough and wet sand getting everywhere. It even splashed up under the tent despite a well-staked rainfly. We got things mostly dry and somewhat sand free before departing shortly after 9am. We had a short day of riding planned, so it worked out fine. It was a lot of cleanup work, though.
Once on the road, we enjoyed beautiful weather and cloud patterns we never get to see in Seattle.
Speaking of Seattle, we're no strangers to ferries, and today we had two to board. Our running joke for the day was that we'd have to skip dinner because the fares amounted to a total of €3.60.
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Looking at the photos below gives me a renewed sense of awe regarding the amazing skyscape we enjoyed today.
We reached ferry #2 a few minutes too late. A long queue from a recently-docked cruise ship had just formed. We weren't in a hurry, but we still wanted to board the next ferry. We did not. We barely made the cutoff on the subsequent run. We occupied some of our time chatting with the Welsh couple in front of us. They gave us a full breakdown of their cruise schedule. It was mostly Croatia and Montenegro. Not sure what they were doing on this side of the Adriatic at all, to be honest. There didn't seem to be much of interest within walking distance of this port, either, but the group seemed happy enough just to be on land.
My wife somehow ended up becoming the ferry ticket fairy. Only one of the three ticket machines accepted €10 bills, so she was waving over anyone without small change over to the better-equipped machine. Eventually I had to tear her away so that we could board the ferry. I'm really proud of the way she stepped up to the plate and helped out the group.
This was a much wider channel, and there were cars involved, but it was still a journey of only 5 minutes at most.
We passed some campgrounds that were closed for the season, and only one or two that were open. Just ad I had suspected. Around here they call the campgrounds "holiday parks", which reminds me of Tommy and the whole "holiday camp" business that sort of bookends the rock opera. There are certain aspects of British and European culture I'll never understand, and the idea of going to a big developed campground for a week-or-longer holiday is one of them. Me, I like to keep moving.
Today was all paved except for one stretch of singletrack. It didn't seem avoidable, and luckily for us, it wasn't waterlogged. We breezed through it.
Right before entering Ravenna, we cleaned our bikes and panniers of that rough course irritating sand that was now no longer wet. The little hotel we chose allowed checkin at 1pm, which was great as far as getting off the bikes and on to the streets. Problem is that we didn't have time for lunch beforehand, and we have this long post-checkin routine that involves showering and changing and laundering our kits and charging our electronics and and and...you get the picture.
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So now it was 2:30 and there was a piadina place just down the street. We hadn't tried one yet, though we'd discussed it many times by this point. Verdict: they're tasty! Not quite a quesadilla, but pretty close.
Then it was off to see the mosaics. It wasn't just mosaics, but it was mostly mosaics. A reasonably-priced ticket gets you into five different sites, two of which are small and have a time slot assigned for you. This makes things a little bit tricky, but they're all less than a ten-minute walk from one another, so efficiency isn't paramount.
First, the Archiepiscopal Museum:
Next, the Arian baptristry. No good pictures because the mosaics were on the ceiling and all I have is this silly phone camera with only digital zoom.
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Next up: the Neoniano baptistry. I love that they had chairs. You could just sit there, crane your neck up a bit, and take in all the splendor.
The breathtaking San Vitale basilica was next on the list. The building was more impressive than its mosaics. But the mosaics there were great too.
Last but not least (or maybe actually least, I don't know) was the Galla Placidia mausoleum.
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That's pretty much it for today. Ravenna is a nice, laid back town filled with friendly people, piazzas, restaurants, and shops. We came here for the mosaics so I'm not sure what we'd do with an extra day. Maybe walk around aimlessly, try to get into the Dante-related sites, or (heaven forbid) go for a bike ride.
Tomorrow it's back to the coast all day, and the weather is supposed to be gorgeous. I'm not sure what we'll encounter in the way of sights. Let's leave it as a surprise. We might make it a long day and end at Pesaro, or we might find an open campground before then. We really need to let our tent dry. But we might be able to do that during lunch if we find a suitable spot. It's liberating not to have a tourist tourist goal in mind. Just pedal and wander.
Today's ride: 44 km (27 miles)
Total: 925 km (574 miles)
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Thanks also for letting us all know about the availability of campgrounds at this time of year. It helps a lot with my decision-making!
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