Matera, Italy

Another city with interesting houses, these are called Sassi, they are mostly carved into the rock, with facades built over the cave. The city was apparently used by Mel Gibson for filming "The Passion of The Christ" which doesn't make much sense to me (I don't really find it to be evocative of Jerusalem), but then I've never seen the film.

False Advertising

I stopped in Modena, Italy to see the cathedral (which of course was covered in scaffolding) and my heart skipped a beat when I saw advertisements all over the city for some kind of Vermeer exhibition. Turns out the "exhibition" was just one painting I had already seen on loan from the National Gallery in London.

5th and 6th Century (!!!) churches of Ravenna, Italy

Basilica di San Vitale



This ancient mosaic inside Basilica di San Vitale depicts the Byzantine Emperor Justinian, who reconquered Italy in the 6th century and reunited the Eastern and Western Roman Empires for a short time. Ravenna was the Byzantine capital of the Western Region. Before that(around 400) Ravenna was actually the Roman capital under Emperor Honorius.



Basilica di San Vitale's more recent frescos



Battistero Neoniano



Basilica di Sant'Apollinare in Classe

It blows me away to think that these churches were built just 400 years after Jesus. It's an amazing time in history, the decline of the Roman Empire in Italy, the art and culture of the Byzantine Empire, and just a couple hundred years before Islam.