Tales of a Wanderer

I am now in Ravenna. In 402, the Emperor Honorius moved the capital of the western Roman empire from Rome to Ravenna. At the time, Ravenna was strategically better because it was farther north, situated on the Adriatic sea in good trade routes, surrounded by marshes for defense and all around just better than Rome.

The barbarian kings took over the Western Roman Empire during that time...see Peter Heathers book "the Fall of the Roman Empire" to explain the causes. The barbarian kings ruled the Western Empire from here in Ravenna. In the 500s, Emperor Justinian came from Constantinople and retook Ravenna and most of Italy back in the name of the Roman Empire. Confused yet? Well, all this to say that, there are the best preserved Byzantine mosaics in the world in this city...next time Ill upload a few of the shots. The churches and their mosaics are simply some of the most beautiful pieces of art I have ever seen.

Ravenna reminds me of where i went to school, UCDavis. Everyone rides their bikes around and they let tourists rent a bike for free! I have my sporty yellow bike and I am riding around in style. I met a great French couple today, Joelle and Eric and they bought me a cappucino and we talked Bush, politics and life. They asked a lot of questions about Americans and they say that French media does not think Americans to be very smart. I was trying to help out the team a bit.

Ciao for now! Check out some of these pics...

Me at St Peters Basilica, Rome

I was fortunate to get a nice shot (I did not flash, even though everyone was using their flash...)

South of Naples in Sorrento...everyone uses scooters here

a statue in Sorrento

I met Antonio feeding pigeons in Sorrento

A courtyard suriving from 70 AD! in Herculaneum

not a bad spot to spend the afternoon, i took a bus from Sorrento (crowded place) to a small little harbor called Nerano

you can see why some of the emperors used to come here...

frescoe of Alexander the Great found in Pompeii dating back to 70AD

Samuel from Ghana, the guy I met in the Naples McDonalds...