This morning, while the girls were sleeping,  I woke up early to write the blog and then went out into the little streets of our neighborhood in search of a cafe.   It was nice to see locals going to work and shop owners starting to open shop.  The tourists will descend later on in the morning, but not quite yet. Obviously, I realize that we are tourists, and there is nothing bad about tourists.  But we live in New York City where we are bombarded by 56 million tourists a year.  So when we go anywhere on vacation, we try to stay in uncrowded places.   Last year, we found the perfect apartment in Paris and I think we’ve been really lucky so far in Italy.  Venice is super crowded, but our little apartment is in a fairly un-touristy area, so we are happy.

That balcony is off of one of…

Ravenna, Italy sits at the literal crossroads between the old world and the new, between Western Culture and Eastern, between Europe and Asia Minor — it is a city that has seen much change in the past several thousand years, and this change is cataloged in its many churches and epochal architecture. While the City of Ravenna has much more to offer travelers than just its holy sanctuaries, today we will be giving our readers an insight into these buildings that — regardless of your faith or denomination — are beautiful living pages out of history.

Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna, Italy

Basilica of San Vitale

This Byzantine-era church is fairly simple in its architecture, but marks the beginning of Byzantine expansion into Europe around 526 AD. The church was originally begun by Bishop Ecclesius at a time of much change for Greece, Italy, and especially Ravenna which was…