RAVENNA AND SURROUNDINGS: THINGS TO SEE

Ravenna and surroundings: 8 Unesco world heritage sites, Dante Alighieri and a landscapes for poets.

Ravenna and surroundings. Ravenna and its province can be considered to be a real open-air museum.
In Ravenna there are 8 UNESCO World Heritage sites, Dante’s tomb, and precious mosaics. Ravenna and its surroundings offer a heritage and a landscape you should visit slowly.

It’s the perfect place for curious travellers.

Ravenna and surroundings – Mausoleum Galla Placidia

Ravenna and its 8 UNESCO World Heritage monuments

Ravenna was the capital city for three times.
The capital city of the Western Roman Empire, of the Kingdom of Ostrogoths with the King Theodoric, and of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire.
Its history and its ancient splendour still live in its monuments, its churches and its squares. But Ravenna is famous especially for its early Christian and Byzantine mosaics.

In Ravenna there are 8 UNESCO World Heritage monuments.

Mausoleo di Galla Placidia (Mausoleum of Galla Placidia), with its starry night sky on the ceiling;
Battistero Neoniano (Neonian Baptistery), with its refined decorations;
Cappella Arcivescovile (Archiepiscopal Chapel), located on the first floor of the Palazzo Arcivescovile (Archiepiscopal Palace);
Basilica di Sant’Apollinare Nuovo (Basilica of Sant’Apollinare Nuovo), built by Theodoric the Great as a church for his court;
Mausoleo di Teodorico (Mausoleum of Theodoric), built near the necropolis reserved for the Goths;
Battistero degli Ariani (Arian Baptistery), built at the time of the Ostrogoth King Theodoric;
Basilica di San Vitale (Basilica of San Vitale), which combines Roman and Byzantine architecture;
Basilica di Sant’Apollinare in Classe (Basilica of Sant’Apollinare in Classe), a beautiful building dedicated to the first bishop of Ravenna.

Ravenna and Dante Alighieri

Ravenna is also the city where Dante decided to settle down in the late 13^th century. Here he finished writing the Last Canto of his Divina Commedia (Divine Comedy), the Paradiso (Paradise), and he died on September 13^th 1321.

September is the month Ravenna dedicates to Dante, organizing events and celebrations, such as the historic ceremony of the oil that is donated by the municipality of Florence to fuel the funerary lamp on the poet’s tomb.

Pinewoods, rocche and medieval villages

The UNESCO sites, the mosaics and the churches tell tales and stories, which were set in these places which are still intact.
Such as, for example, the Pinete di San Vitale and Classe, which are protected areas of the Parco del Delta del Po and divide the city of Ravenna from the sea, and fascinated Dante, Botticelli, Boccaccio, Lord Byron, and Oscar Wilde.

In addition, you can admire the rocche on the hills (strongholds) from the medieval village of Brisighella to the town of Riolo Terme to the Rocca Estense (Este Castle) in Lugo, and the sighting towers which are part of a landscape in which history and nature mix together.