Loading...We arrived in Ravenna after our longest train trip. The train from Padova to Ferrara was packed, as it was continuing on to Roma. We changed at Ferrara for an almost entirely empty train whose sole purpose seemed only to connect the cities of Ferrara and Ravenna. After arriving, we dragged our bags across the difficult cobblestones to our bed and breakfast. Ravenna was the biggest test of our Samonsite rolling luggage, it was tough, but those little wheels survived what felt like dragging them over the Dolomites.
The Basilica of San Vitale was one block from our Bed & Breakfast. We dropped our bags off and walked over. The Basilica was consecrated in 548 AD and is laid out in an octagonal style reminiscent of the East. There are two different styles at play that you notice when you walk in to San Vitale. The dome ceiling and the niches are painted in frescoes from 1780. Then you step in a little further, and see the apse decorated in the 1,500 year old mosaics. It is an interesting dichotomy.
Walking into San Vitale was one of those eerie monument moments. I’ve had a few of them in my life: the first time I walked into Notre Dame in Paris, listening to vespers at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. It was morning and we were virtually alone, the sun shone through the windows in solid blocks of yellow illumination. Someone was up above practicing on the organ. In those moments I always feel like I’m alone, like I’m experiencing something close to what these buildings were designed for. It’s hard to explain, my skin starts to get goose-pimply.
Anyway, San Vitale was one of those moments. I can’t describe, and neither does my camera lens do justice to, the colors in these mosaics. The bright green, gold, reds and blues. The details were so abundant that my neck still hurts from trying to catalog them all. There is the beardless Christ sitting on a big blue ball (yoga, maybe?). There is the bright green garden at his feet with the animals and the birds. There are peacocks, lambs, flowers everywhere. I tried to slow down. I tried to remember to stop looking through my camera lens and look through my eyes. I tried to pretend that I could sketch and tried to think about what I would draw if I could, make my eyes follow the lines and take in every detail. It was a moment that I needed to be present in because I knew that memory or my jpeg files would never truly represent the impact. Even trying to describe it all now seems futile.
Color is emotional for most people, but I’ve always been particularly moved by colors. I am drawn to mosaics for exactly that reason, the pure vibrancy of color. It was hard not to stand in the apse of San Vitale with my head craned and not tear up. All the green, it’s as if it shot through my eyeballs and tickled my brain. That’s the best I can do to describe it, if you want more, go there yourself! (No really, go there.)
Here’s more.
The best way to view the pictures (in my opinion) is to click on the first one which opens a larger view, then click Next in that new window. This way you can also read the captions.
