Posted from abroad -- Ravenna vs. Us

We were in Ravenna on Tuesday, and all in all it was much less unpleasant than the last time around.

If one assumes that Ravenna as a whole is a malevolent entity that tries to make the tourists feel frustrated and unworthy when they leave, and we on the other hand try to enjoy ourselves as muc as possible, the score was as follows:

• The first Ravennate bloke was really nice to us - point for us. (1)
  
• We got to Classe by bus without a hitch - point for us. (2)
  
• There were two bus stops on the way back, we didn't find the second one, and thought the bus went only every hour - point for Ravenna- (1)
  
• The first bar in Classe where we wanted to wait ignored us - point for Ravenna. (2)
  
• The second bar was just great, very civil prices, and I got the best olive focaccia in existence -- yummy!! Point for us! (3)
  
• The waitress upset my water glass and offered no amends - point for Ravanna. (3)
  
• We got back from Classe to the city centre without a hitch - point for us. (4)
  
• The nice bloke at the bus information office remembered us and gave me a bus map for free - point for us. (5)
  
• We got to the tomb of Theodoric without a hitch - point for us. (6)
  
• We were the only people in the whole tomb and could do whatever we wanted; I made an arcane joke with a curtain - point for us. (7)
  
• There was an excavation of foundations around the tomb, and I think we might have seen an actual dead Goth - point for us! (8)
  
• We missed the bus by two minutes because I had to get a piece of gravel from my shoe - point for Ravenna. (4)
  
• We got to the Museo Nazionale without a hitch, walking half the way, ataking some nice pictures of Ravenna street un-life on the way - point for us. (9)
  
• When my mother started to seriously lag because of too much heat and not enough to drink, the custodian in the museum was really nice to her and found her a chair - point for us. (10)
  
• A few steps further down, when my mother started going woozy again, the custodian of San Vitale wouldn't let her into the cool church - point for Ravenna. (5)
  
• I got her alive to the next café, where we were served the best iced coffee ever, a shot of espresso over vanilla and hazelnut ice ceam that was so strong, it would even have woken the dead Goth from earlier on - point for us. (11)
  
• We got a free gift in the museum shop - point for us. (12)
  
• The book I wanted was 35 Euro, which I only realised when I had paid for it, because nobody had bothered to actually put on a price tag, unless all the other things - point for Ravenna. (6)
  
• We got to San Apollinare Nuovo without a hitch - point for us. (13)
  
• They only sold combination tickets for five churches, and we only wanted to see the one, and not pay 8.50 Euro for it. They claimed there were no single tickets for specific churches. Tourists are supposed to see them all - point for Ravenna. (7)
  
• We weren't even allowed in the cloister without a ticket - point for Ravenna. (8)
  
• Everything in that bloody shop was bloody expensive, so I failed to buy a sufficient number of packets of tesserae which would have been quite affordable in Classe - point for Ravenna. (9)
  
• The guard at the church entrance refused to be bribed to let us in regardless - point for Ravenna. (10)
  
• We got back to the station without a hitch - point for us. (14)

I count every successful bus journey by itself because the Ravennate system is truly Byzantine. Also, Ravenna waited to spew all nastiness at us near the end, so even my mother was so annoyed she declared she'd never be back. But really, if we tally it like this, we won. By a narrow margin, but we did win.-