Ravenna and Rimini

So as you all know, I had been wanting to go to Ravenna and Rimini, two towns northeast of Perugia on the Adriatic Coast for quite some time. After consulting our schedules, we realized the best time would be this weekend and so after spending a good amount of time on Trenitalia's website (one of the things I am looking forward to not dealing with anymore- so annoying) trying to find train times that worked, we settled on this (somewhat crazy) plan:
Leave for Ravenna around 8am, do Ravenna in the afternoon, then take the train to Rimini (they are only an hour apart), do Rimini until 2am (yes I said 2 am) and then take the train back to Perugia, bringing us home right at 6:30am. We (Margaux, Jackie, and I) decided, what the hell, let's do it.
My roommate Liz had gone to both towns before so that was one of the main reasons I really wanted to go- plus she gave us tips on what to do and such. So we left promptly, and had no train problems, making a few switches here and there- had a really good cappuccino in some random train station- they had flavored sugar- weird!
Anyway, so we arrived at Ravenna right around 1:20ish, and immediately went looking for lunch. We found a pretty hopping little pizza place and all got little personal pizzas before heading out to the tourists office to rent bikes. One of the coolest things I found out about Ravenna was that EVERYONE bikes there. Even women in their high heels and older men in their suits were biking around town. It's one of the easiest cities to bike in, and probably the only city that I've seen ACTUAL SIDEWALKS in.

(a sidewalk? no way!)

It's a really pretty city and very very pedestrian AND handicapped accessible- I loved the little areas in the street made especially for bikes, so great. Ravenna is also a huge city for Mosiacs, they are everywhere and they have museums and chapels full of them- also, I spotted a few mosiac laboratories (workshops) that looked like they were still fully functional. Pretty cool.
So we went to the tourists office to rent the bikes, which were pretty nice- baskets, bells, lock, etc. They were free, we just signed our life away and then went out riding. First we tried heading toward the mosiacs, but that didn't work since there seemed to be a lot of school groups out and Margaux hadn't ridden a bike since she was 12. So instead, we headed for some side streets to get used to the bikes. After riding for a little while we decided to head back out- having the bikes was so nice and easy, we got around the town so much faster (not that it was a big town, but it was just easier) and it was a lot more fun.

(our terrible parking job)
So we followed the signs for the mosiacs and we found a building that was basically a church but underground there was a whole excavated area. Apparently some guy wanted to build a garage or basement or some such thing and upon construction of his house, dug up this giant mosiac floor. After a whole crew worked at it, they uncovered a whole ancient house with an entire mosiac floor. It was neat because you could walk through the entire floor plan of the house and see all the tile floors and images made out of tile.

There were a bunch of other tile museums but we wanted to be on the 4:50 train to Rimini so that we could see the Malatesta Temple before it closed at 7pm... so instead we headed straight over to Dante's tomb. Well... after getting lost a few times, we found it. Dante was actually from Florence, but the city kicked him out and then he came to live in Ravenna (good decision). This is why there is an empty tomb for Dante in Florence, which I saw on my art trip. However, his real tomb is in Ravenna, and it's really nice.
There was also a museum but it was closed.
After seeing his tomb, we biked back to the tourists' office, returned our bikes and headed for the train station. Before taking the train to Rimini, we had some tasty gelato- and then we were off.
Rimini is right on the shore, and it is the home of Federico Fellini, one of the most famous Italian directors, and possibly one of the greatest (weirdest?) directors ever. I really wanted to see the city because he based so many of his movies off his childhood there.
Once we got to the town, we headed straight for the Malatesta Temple, and unfinished church whose interior is done entirely by Alberti.
Inside there was a fresco by Piero della Francesca and Giotto's famous crucifix-- I've seen duplicates, but nothing compares to the real thing. It was weird being inside though because the entire dome was just white and plain- totally contrasting the other half of the temple where Alberti's fancy sculptures were quite ornate and decorative along the arches.
After seeing the Temple, we decided to wander around. We then found Augustus' arch (yes another arch, they are everywhere) in the middle of nowhere, basically.
Rimini is also a really pretty town, and a lot of people were biking there too, but nothing like Ravenna.
We windowshopped and wandered the streets, looking for the center. Along the way we stopped in the Conad (grocery store) and bought bread, proscuitto, cheese, fruit, and cookies for a nice cheap dinner to eat later. After this, we found one of the main piazzas where Fellini actually filmed a bit of "Amarcord" so that was neat.
Since we knew we'd be in Rimini until 2am we kept wandering around and looking in stores trying to kill time before heading to the beach. We also played on a playground for a little bit, getting weird looks from a lot of Italian moms.
After this, we tried following signs for "al mare" but unfortunately it was really confusing and we ended up in a sea port, which looked strangely like New Hope. So we turned around and headed for the Train station which is where there was supposed to be some kind of tunnel. After failing to find this tunnel, we settled on taking the bus since it was getting dark and we were tired of guessing where the beach was.
The bus dropped us off right on the main drag which had tons of shops, restaurants, and hotels and we turned and headed to the beach. Most of the hotels had private beach front areas which changing areas and picnic tables and such, but since it was night time, no one was there and everything was pretty dead. So we made our way through and just plopped down right on a picnic table on the beach to eat our dinner. It was kind of creepy, actually it was rather scary, and we figured if someone came to kick us out of the private beach area we would just pretend we didn't know Italian and try to offer them a cookie. But no one came, and after we ate we headed down a path to walk along the water. It was a really pretty night- there were more people out walking on the beach than we realized, there were even people riding horses along the water!
We stayed out on the water for a while, playing with our frisbee disk and wandering along the water until we had walked a pretty far way down. So we turned and headed up toward the hotels and restaurants and found ourselves at a McDonalds. Bah. Well, we used the bathroom and then looked at their map to figure out where we were. Then we noticed kids riding by in those bike carts like the things people ride on the boardwalk, and on the boardwalk in disney world. We looked in our Go Italy book and found the rental place in the book and on the map and then headed off to go rent a pedal cart, as they were called. We found the place after getting a little lost and wandering around in the Fellini park.

(crazy fountain in the Fellini park)(giant camera in the Fellini park)

Unfortunately, the rental place was closed so instead we went in an arcade and played foosball and air hockey, talked to some random italain boys and then headed off to window shop. Luckily, Rimini was a really hopping town so it wasn't scary being out so late in a strange place considering it's only April. There were a bunch of bars and clubs and there were even clothing stores still open. Margaux bought a pair of glittery capris and then we tried to find a gelato place that Go Italy recommended but unfortunately that was closed too... but we found another place and got some gelato (second gelato of the day... well not technically since it was midnight).
After the gelato we went to the bus stop and waited for the bus. We checked the times and then for some reason the bus never showed up. Then the next bus came, but didn't stop for us. Annoyed, we headed up the path toward the train station which was really well lit and actually not very long at all.
We went right into the train station where we sat for a while before the train came. Our train was actually delayed, which seemed to be a pattern for the day, but we didn't have any problems and after a few switches and chilly train rides we found ourselves back in Perugia and I stumbled into my apartment around 7 in the morning. After brushing my teeth I went to bed right away, only to wake up 3 hours later feeling strangely well rested. My body is tired but I can't sleep. Maybe I'll take a nap later, but for now I need to study for my finals.
Tomorrow my entire apartment is going to a Perugia soccer game with our landlord and then we are cooking him and his family dinner. That should be fun, he's so nice.
I will update on that later, but for now, it's time to study. Hope everyone is doing well. I can't believe there is only a week left.