Well ... actually I'm, back in Mangakino. Just as exotic from some perspectives, not nearly as many Byzantine mosaic monuments.
I had a terrific time in Ravenna. I won't even try & describe the various churches and so forth - ask Aunty Google or any reliable guidebook, which will give you no idea whatsoever until or unless you go and see them yourself. Suffice it to say that I spent quite a lot of time walking round with a slack jaw and stunned expression. It was wonderful; it was a dream come true.
Of course, body and soul must be cared for and kept together amidst whatever kind of Stendahlian raptures. I was incredibly lucky with my choice of accommodation at http://www.albergoalgiaciglio.com/indexENG.htm - the dinners were spectacularly good, and the accommodations and facilities were excellent for the price. I'd go back.
There was a Christmas market starting the weekend I left, with various interesting things - mostly imported textiles (bags, gloves, scarves, etc) and jewellery. I enjoyed wandering round, and bought the next ten years' worth of shawls. There's a reasonable covered market with fruit and vege stalls and loads of deli, butchery, cheese and fish places. I didn't buy anything, but enjoyed the nativity scene, and check out the enormous sausage!
When I arrived in Italy I spoke almost no Italian. This might work okay in bigger places, but Ravenna is a fairly small city really - a hundred and thirty odd thousand people - and I encountered quite a few people who didn't speak English (I didn't try French or German, though the former certainly helped me understand stuff!) By the end of the week, I could fluently apologise for not understanding, not speaking Italian, and generally being foreign.
But by the time I was leaving, I was glad to go. I did get pretty homesick. I was apprehensive about the trip to Tonga, but it turned out beautifully, with lovely weather and reasonably serene internal weather. We got out just ahead of the cyclone, stayed a night in Auckland with my parents and then came down home.
I'm sure I'll think of more that I wanted to say about all this, along about the moment I hit 'publish post'...
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