A different style of pilgrimage

We picked up a rather flash and quite large (for Italy) hire car on Monday morning and navigated our way carefully out of Rome to Orvieto. A fabulous lunch with our friend Kaye followed as we collected some gear we had left with her when we travelled through. Then it was over the mountains to Jesi where we met and stayed with one of Maddie's adult support people Fiona and Paulo. Fiona is a teacher at Maddie's former school and it was great to meet her. We appreciated their hospitality. On Tuesday we enjoyed exploring Jesi and meeting one of Maddie's friends for afternoon tea at their favorite meeting place. Back to Fiona's again for the evening where after dinner we discovered to our distress that the house had been burgled during the day and money, jewelry and Maddie's laptop were stolen. Tragically this contained all her Italian photos from her exchange year and a novel she has been working on for 4 years, so it was a little distressing for us as well as our hosts. We all felt a little flat for the next day. A visit with the police the next morning held us up a bit but we were ready go by lunch time and made our way to Ravenna.

The early Christian mosaics of Ravenna were fantastic and we all enjoyed spending some time exploring the various sites where these still survive. We had a great meal on the recommendation of a shop keeper where Sophie bought a new winter coat.

Today we spent the morning back in Ravenna before heading north to Venice. It was dark by the time we arrived so it was a fun finding the Hostel out on one of the Islands facing the main square. We settled in and down to bed early however there is a large very undisciplined French school group here who are extremely noisy..... And it is 1.00am. They show no signs of settling in spite of several of our fellow dorm mates asking them to show some respect an the hostel rules which indicate expulsion for noise!!