Recently my wife Joan and I returned from a trip to Italy with our daughters Mary and Catherine. We packed a lot into just fourteen days. Here's a link to my albums page at Flickr. Or use these links to view the photos I took in each city:

(Mary and Catherine headed up to Venice on their own while Joan and I went over to Ravenna. So no photos from Venice because I didn't go.) 

We took trains between the cities, and inside the cities we got around mainly on foot. We walked 25,000 steps some days! Could have rented a car but I really didn't want to drive and for us that was a good decision.

My favorite places on this trip were Ravenna and Pisa, especially Ravenna. The mosaics there are the greatest in the world outside Istanbul and they are stunning. In my previous life as an academic, I worked in the high classical period (Cicero, Vergil, Petronius), the high Medieval period (think Dante) and the Renaissance. But I never studied Ravenna and didn't know a lot about it or that era so I was unprepared for what I saw there. It was a revelation, a whole new world of dark shadows and brilliant light. I'll never forget the experience of walking into the Basilica of San Vitale and looking up at the angels and the Son of God:
 

But every place we visited was wonderful and every day was a blessing. I hope you enjoy the photos. If you want to make a comment, I think you can do so on each photo's Flickr page. 

A final note: If you can, please view the pictures on a computer with a large, high-quality display. 

 

William Porter ☆ San Antonio, Texas