May 22

view from our monastery room
view of the Palatine Hill over the Circus Maximus
Owen winning the race at the Circus Maximus - Daddy is clearly not so fast a horse as Owen.
seafood salad for lunch - octopus, shrimp, squid, mussels, olive oil

Orthodox Baptistry
San Apollinare
San Apollinare mosaic of Ravenna
exterior of Theodoric's palace
interior portion of Theodoric's palace
interior portion of Theodoric's palace - a great place to run!
returned, restored mosaic fragment in Theodoric's palace
Owen climbing the spiral stairs of Theodoric's palace
view from Ravenna hotel

We are headed for Rome (from Ravenna by way of Bologna). The countryside here is very hilly and quite picturesque. This morning we visited the ruins of the 5th century Palace of Theodoric the Ostragoth a few steps from our hotel, the tomb of Dante whose bones have wandered about over the centuries, the Basilica di San Apollinare Nuovo, and the Orthodox Baptistry. The palace housed a number of original, restored mosaic remnants; the Pope had allowed Charlemagne to gut its decorations in the late 8th century for his new palace at Aachen in modern Germany. The basilica is very close to the palace ruins and was originally the personal chapel of Theodoric; among the other mosaics, there were scenes of Ravenna and the palace in its full glory. We found Ravenna very easy to get around by foot and still see all we wanted to.
. . .
Our accomodations in Rome are at the Monastero di San Gregorio al Celio. We are on the Caelian hill, facing the Palatine Hill and within 2 minutes walking distance to the Circus Maximus and the Colosseum (or as Abram informs me, the Flavian Amphitheater). It looks and feels much more like I expected a monastery to be. You enter through a gated courtyard, and you wind around through halls that look out onto other court yards. Pope Gregory the Great sent out St. Augustine (not the famous one) out to Christianize the Angles (of England) in the 6th century.
After checking in, we found a rather dirty park for Owen to stretch his legs then let him run in the Circus Maximus which is open and serves as a large public park.