San Marino

I can't claim to know much about San Marino except that it is a separate land locked country located in Italy. Wayne went there on his tour so I have included some photos he took. He avoided the rain to some extent.

Ravenna

The weather caught up with us at the next stop which was Ravenna which used to be the capital of Italy many years ago. Because of the rain photography outside was severely limited! We visited the Church of S. Vitale which was began in 525 A D. The mosaics are magnificent with lots of gold.

The urn in this mosaic gives the impression of being in 3D. It may well be but you cannot get close enough to see!

Apparently Ravenna is only a few feet above the water so there is constant work being done to ensure that the building doesn't sink. This part of the floor was lifted at some point and you can actually see the water in the space that was left. The design on the right is the original swastika design which was used by Hitler with some alterations.

Part of the actual floor - it was a bit difficult to photograph with so many people walking over it. Because of the water problem they have found it is better preserved by not covering it as the humidity would cause more deterioration.

We next visited Sant'Apollinare Nuovo which had more mosaics.

Venice

I was up early the next morning to be out on the deck when we sailed into Venice where we were to spend 2 days. This first image is of the entrance to the Grand Canal.

The Doge's Palace in the early morning light.
On the first morning I headed off by myself and walked from the Plaza de Roma to St Mark's Square - got confused a few times but saw lots of lovely Venetian sights. I loved seeing this lace being dried. No rotary clothes lines here.

A deserted square.
Lovely fresh produce for sale.
Part of a gondola.
One of the many bridges on the canals.
This was a very narrow house!
This water dispenser amused me - look at the design on the stonework.

Grand Canal from the Academia Bridge. I'd managed to find my way to this area hoping to visit the Guggenheim Gallery only to find it was closed on Tuesdays!!

And I know I've put this image in before but can't work out how to delete it!!!

The next day Wayne and I got the vaporetto into St Mark's Square - here are some photos of the outside of St Marks.

And then we found a lovely restaurant - the grilled scampi were something else.

Split

The next day we were up the coast, still in Croatia, but at Split. We had visited here before so I selected a tour which took us out of the city mainly based on information I received a couple of months before from an ADFAS lecture given by a Croatian lady who talked about these places. Our first stop was the Mestrovic Gallery. Mestrovic was a famous sculptor who has works shown all around the world. The gallery is at his former residence which he actually designed in his role of an architect.
More steps to climb up!
The view from one of the rooms at the gallery.

A self portrait.
And some of his sculptures.


We next visited Roman remains at Salona - this is a graveyard.

This is a feature of the garden in the area.

We next visited the cathedral of St Lawrence

Part of the door of the cathedral - it is a huge portal with lots of carvings and very difficult to get a good photo of it as a whole.

The carving of Adam.
And Eve
More details including one of St Lawrence who was always depicted with a grill and I'm trying to remember the reason why - I'd like to say something to do with barbecues but it wasn't quite that simple.

Durovnik

The next day, with the weather behind us for a while at least, we docked at Dubrovnik. This was a beautiful place and it is hard to imagine how recently they were at war. We were told that the houses with the red roofs were all new as the previous had been destroyed in the war - there were a lot of bright red roofs. This is a view of Dubrovnik from the ship.

I went up in the cable car to the top of a hill and this is the view of the mountains behind the town - very bleak.
Looking down the coast from the top of the hill.
The old walled town of Dubrovnik from the hill - this is where we went next.
The Western Gate to the Old Town. The town is completely enclosed by a wall which you could walk around - I didn't feel up to climbing all the steps to get to the top!
An interesting door handle.
More decorative buildings.
The narrow streets full of cafes waiting for all those tourists.

I'm not sure how far the owner of this bike actually road - hopefully not down the steps.
The clock tower.
A church.

Dubrovnik

Corfu

After leaving Athens we had a delightful day at sea basking in the sun. We then arrived at the Greek Island of Corfu only to find that it was raining very heavily. Added to this we had to tender in on our lifeboats. Needless to say once I arrived back at the ship it was a complete strip and a very hot shower! The photos don't reflect how heavy the rain was. The first stop was at Achillion which was the Empress Elisabeth of Austria's summer palace. She was known as Sissi and apparently there was a film made of her life around the 50s. This is a bust of Sissi.

A fireplace in the palace - not sure I'd be game to light a fire in such a beautiful place.

A beautiful book on display.
Whilst it was very wet I did venture out into a quick tour of the gardens. This statue of a naked lady apparently caused much controversy at the time. The model was called into court on account of her nudity. However her lawyer asked her to strip before the judge - who was so impressed by her beauty let her off any charges!

The rear of the statue of Archilles showing the arrow in his heel.

We then drove up a hill to look over Pontikonissi and the Monastery of Panagia Vlacherna.

After a very wet walk through the town we resorted to a coffee in a line of cafes which overlooked this green park which is actually a cricket pitch - a remnant of the British rule over the Island.