Ravenna – City of Mosaics

Who knew that our favorite day trip from Bologna would be Ravenna, a city we hadn’t even heard of before we took this trip to Italy. Ravenna is an easy day trip from Bologna, Florence or Venice – and one we would highly recommend. The sites in Ravenna are a series of early Catholic buildings that contain amazing mosaics, which were a common art form in the early Catholic Church. We walked between the city's numerous UNESCO heritage sites with our mouths gaping as each mosaic we saw blew us away. This was our best day ever spent visiting old churches. And kudos to the city for making it easy to visit all of the sites with one ticket and entry fee.

For such an unknown place, Ravenna has an interesting history. It was the capital of the Western Roman Empire from 402 until 476, when the empire collapsed. It then served as the capital of the Ostragothic Kingdom, until it was reconquered by the Byzantine Empire. The Byzantines left their mark as most of the mosaics were created during their rule. Most of the buildings and mosaics we visited were built in the 5th and 6th centuries, well before the sites we visited in Bologna, which are from medieval times, dating from the 8th and 9th centuries.

It was difficult to capture the mosaics in photos (the pictures just don't do them justice), and even more difficult to select photos to include here. By dumb luck we started with the really good mosaics at the Basilica of Sant’Apollinare Nuovo (which also has a leaning tower, by the way) and finished with the best in the Basilica of San Vitale.

Sant’Apollinare’s mosaics extended horizontally along the church walls. These are just a few close-ups:

Dante Alighieri, author of The Divine Comedy, and perhaps Italy's most famous author, is buried next door to the Basilica of San Francesco where there is a mosaic in the basement crypt that has been flooded because Ravenna sits on soft marshland and has settled over the centuries. This crypt, which even has goldfish swimming in it, is right in the middle of the church underneath the alter (that's Dante's tomb on the left):

The City of Florence is not too happy that Dante is buried 90 miles from his home city, but he was in exile in Ravenna when he died in 1321.

The next site we visited, the Baptistry of Neon, is an octagonal brick building that looks surprisingly squat. This is because the original floor of the building is now about 10 feet underground, which gives what you can see a somewhat odd look. The building, finished at the end of the 5th century, features an amazing ceiling mosaic depicting John the Baptist baptizing Jesus:

Next, we visited the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, the daughter of Roman Emperor Theodosius I. Although she may not even be buried in her own Mausoleum, this small building is covered in beautiful mosaics: 

Finally, saving the best for last, the Basilica of San Vitale, which includes the largest and best-preserved mosaics, depicting both scenes from the Bible (Old and New Testaments), as well as historical figures:

Although by the end of the day we had started to get neck aches since most of the mosaics are high up, it was worth the pain. We also kept asking ourselves “how’d they do that?” We think that the modern world underestimates the technology of the ancients since these mosaics are about 1500 years old. 

After a long day being awed, we even found a mosaic bench to sit on and rest our feet. And, of course, we had gelato before getting on the return train.

Ciao,

Shana & Jeff