Anywhere Italy
Stemma di Ravenna

Emilia-Romagna · Ravenna

Ravenna

A 4-meter coastal capital of three successive empires, with eight UNESCO mosaic monuments from the fifth and sixth centuries.

Known for

  • UNESCO MOSAICS

    Eight monuments from the fifth and sixth centuries inscribed in 1996, including San Vitale, Galla Placidia and Sant'Apollinare Nuovo.

  • THREE CAPITALS

    Capital of the Western Roman Empire from 402, of Theoderic's Ostrogothic kingdom from 493, and of Byzantine Italy until 751.

  • DANTE

    The poet died here in 1321 in exile from Florence and is buried beside the Basilica of San Francesco, in a neoclassical tomb of 1781.

  • PESCA E NETTARINA DI ROMAGNA

    The commune lies inside the Pesca e Nettarina di Romagna IGP production zone.

When to visit

Best · May–Sep

  • J
  • F
  • M
  • A
  • M
  • J
  • J
  • A
  • S
  • O
  • N
  • D
  • Best
  • Hot or crowded
  • Quiet
  • Mostly closed

The festa: Apollinare di Ravenna, 23 July

Why come

Ravenna sits four meters above sea level on the Adriatic coastal plain, ten kilometers from the sea and 105 kilometers east of Modena. Its position, low, flat, and close to the coast but not on it, made it defensible in a way landlocked cities were not: the surrounding marsh and lagoon kept armies at a distance while boats could still reach it. That is why Honorius moved the Western Roman capital here in 402, why Theoderic kept it as his Ostrogothic seat, and why the Byzantine Exarchate held it for Constantinople until 751 as the last piece of imperial territory in northern Italy.

Each of the three regimes built churches and paid for mosaic to decorate them, which is why the city's monuments read as a sequence rather than a single style: Roman, Gothic and Byzantine hands working in the same medium across a century and a half. The municipality itself is split between this historic center and a stretch reaching the Adriatic, where Marina di Ravenna and Punta Marina hold Bandiera Blu beaches, so the same town that holds the fifth-century mausoleums also runs a public coastline. Population is 155,751. What the churches add up to is less a city of monuments than a record of power changing hands, with each occupant leaving its faith in glass and gold on the walls rather than tearing down what came before.

The Sunday letter

We haven’t written Ravenna’s letter yet.

One town every Sunday, with the photo, the food, the festa. Be there when this one comes up. Free, by Peter & Sophia from Pietrasanta.

Ravenna — photo 1
Ravenna — photo 2

What to see

  • Basilica di San Vitale

    Octagonal basilica holding the imperial mosaics of Justinian and Theodora in the presbytery and apse, the throne room of the sequence in gold and purple.

  • Mausoleo di Galla Placidia

    Small mausoleum next to the basilica, vaulted in a starry blue mosaic sky with gold cross and the symbols of the Evangelists, dim enough that the gold seems to generate its own light.

  • Basilica di Sant'Apollinare Nuovo

    Built by Theoderic as his palace chapel, the nave walls lined with continuous mosaic processions of saints and martyrs facing each other the full length of the church.

  • Basilica di Sant'Apollinare in Classe

    Set at the ancient port of Classe, five kilometers south of the center, with a luminous green apse mosaic of the Transfiguration lit through plain clerestory windows.

  • Battistero Neoniano

    Built by Bishop Neon over an earlier bath house, the dome mosaic showing the Baptism of Christ encircled by the twelve apostles, directly above the font.

  • Mausoleo di Teodorico

    Gothic tomb capped by a single 230-tonne Istrian limestone monolith ten meters across, cut and set without mortar or mosaic, unlike everything else in the city.

  • Tomba di Dante

    Small standalone chapel beside the Basilica of San Francesco, its neoclassical front at odds with the age of what it holds.

The slow-trip planner

Building a trip? Find where Ravenna fits in a slow Italy circuit.

Answer five questions. We will shape a geographically coherent slow trip from the 1,000 Italian towns most travelers skip. Yours to save and share.

Plan your trip

We recommend

Where to eat

Not our picks, but places the guides put their name to: a Michelin star, a Gambero Rosso fork, a Slow Food snail, a Michelin Key for the hotels. Worth a table, a counter, or a night when you pass through.

Through the year

What happens here

Feasts and festivals that come back year after year. We give the month rather than the date, because the date moves and the month rarely does. Check with the source before you plan a journey around one.

  • GiovinBacco. Sangiovese in Celebrationfood festival

    usually held in October. sagritaly.com

Living here

  • Population 155,751
  • A local hubi
  • Pharmacy in town
  • High school within a 30-minute drive
  • Train station in the comune
  • Nearest airport Bologna, 1 h 0 min drive
  • Regional capital Bologna, 1 h 2 min drive
Tags & datadesignations · numbers · sources

The numbers

  • Elevation: 4 m
  • Population: 155,751
  • Surface area: 653.82 km²

These figures were compiled from public directories — ISTAT, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata — and from the official listings of the guides named on this page. Town details change; verify with official sources before you travel.

Featured on

Ravenna appears on this themed pick from our Collections:

Close by

More towns near Ravenna

🏛️ UNESCO

More UNESCO towns