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Day 86: Ravenna Italy Day 2

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Today we did "Tours by Locals" that was set up by a fellow passenger. It was called: Explore Ravenna Unesco Full Day Highlights A short ride from the port into town In this tour we have the opportunity of seeing six Unesco Monuments with the most beautiful complete and antique mosaics in the world, Roman and Byzantine. We started with the Mausoleum of Theodoric https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mausoleum_of_Theodoric The mausoleum's current structure consists of two decagonal orders, one above the other made of Istrian stone, sourced from a quarry approximately 400 kilometres (249 mi) away by land journey. The mausoleum's roof consists of a single carved stone 10 metres (33 ft) in diameter weighing 230 tonnes. A niche leads down to a room that was probably a chapel for funeral liturgies; an external stair leads to the upper floor. Located in the centre of the upper floor is a fragmentary ancient Roman porphyry tub, likely from a bath complex, in which Theodoric was buried...
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Day 102: Arrecife, Lanzarote (Island of the Canary Island chain)

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 Today we are visiting the first of two of the Canary Islands Lanzarote is the Eastern most of the seven main islands and the Canary Islands are actually named after dogs, not birds!! "The name  Islas Canarias  is likely derived from the Latin name  Canariae Insulae , meaning "Islands of the Dogs", a name that was evidently generalized from the ancient name of one of these islands,  Canaria  – presumably Gran Canaria. According to the historian  Pliny the Elder , the island  Canaria  contained "vast multitudes of dogs of very large size". [23] Other theories speculate that the name comes from the  Nukkari  Berber tribe living in the Moroccan Atlas, named in Roman sources as  Canarii , though Pliny again mentions the relation of this term with dogs. [24]  The connection to dogs is retained in their depiction on the islands' coat-of-arms. It is thought that the aborigines of Gran Canaria called themselves "Canarios". [25] ...
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Day 83: Gythion, Greece (and Sparta)

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  Today we are in Gythion Greece and heading to the ancient towns of Sparta and Mistras Driving inland toward Sparta and Mistras Mystras or Mistras (Greek: Μυστρᾶς/Μιστρᾶς),[2] also known in the Chronicle of the Morea as Myzithras (Μυζηθρᾶς), is a fortified town and a former municipality in Laconia, Peloponnese, Greece. Situated on Mt. Taygetus, near ancient Sparta, it served as the capital of the Byzantine Despotate of the Morea in the 14th and 15th centuries, experiencing a period of prosperity and cultural flowering during the Palaeologan Renaissance, including the teachings of Gemistos Plethon.[2] The city also attracted artists and architects of the highest quality.[2] The site remained inhabited throughout the Ottoman period, when Western travellers mistook it for ancient Sparta. In the 1830s, it was abandoned and the new town of Sparti was built, approximately eight kilometres to the east. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the Sparti municipality.[3] As an...
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