Monday’s minor challenges

Today I went to see the final mosaic-note worthy church a bus ride south of Ravenna. I was looking forward to it because it is the one I remember from when John and I were here in 1976. I am still muddling left and right and where cars and buses drive. Most places the books say, and certainly in the south 4 years ago, you cannot get your bus ticket on the bus. I asked the reception lady on my way out and she told me where the bus stop was, pointing to the map. I said something really intelligent like ’Are you sure?’ I thought it was on the other side of the road. I knew the bus was going south, I just got muddled what side of the road the bus drove on.

I arrived at the church just as a group of German tourists arrived, but it did not matter as it is a huge place. ( see notes) I caught the bus back and then went to a wool shop that I had seen before but it had always been closed when I passed. I talked to the 2 ladies in the shop– told them that we get Italian wool, but it is expensive etc, etc . They had a huge range of beautiful colours. But they did not seem to have any patterns. They had 2 piles of quarterly magazines, but most were several years old and fairly thumbed through. Just as well or I may have been tempted.

I have read about Italian beaches, seen them in the south, but thought today I would go to the Marina di Ravenna and see a beach and the port. Sounded good on paper. The bus did not stop when it got to where I thought it was going and then, because of a series of one way streets did not initially retrace it’s path. Everything was almost deserted, even though it is school holidays. I could have asked, but instead I stayed on the bus a bit longer until I was sure it had gone past where I thought I wanted to go and then got off and walked back. At no time could you see the water from the bus – there was a strip of trees and just a whole series of paths and signs leading down to the individual sections of the long beach. Anyway, at the marina end , there finally was a public road that went to the ‘beach’ area. I went into one of the few that was open, had some food, watched the few people wander around. Mostly large old people very tanned. I was meant to pay to go further, but I asked if I could just have a look at the water and was allowed. The rows and rows of deck chairs were mostly deserted. They did have little moveable head shades though. The water was a putrid opaque shade of dark grey/brown. Some people were swimming in it! I walked back through the town – it felt a bit like Noosa without any people. I got back to the bus stop, saw a bus coming and suddenly realized I had done it again – I was on the wrong side of the road. He grinned at me when he returned 10 mins later and picked me up on the correct side of the road. I worked out what landmark I would look for to press the button to get off near the hotel but forgot about the oneway streets all through Ravenna. Just as well I don’t mind walking. An opportunity to see something different!