As part of our honeymoon (!), we are taking the time to explore a variety of smaller cities within Emilia Romagna region of Italy, as we’ve been to Bologna several times and fallen in love with this area of Italy and its incredible food and cultural traditions. Based in the mountains just outside Bologna, we started the first of several road trips by visiting someplace I’ve wanted to see (and actively planned more than one trip to!): Ravenna.

Located on the Adriatic Coast south of Venice, Ravenna is a small town known primarily for its collection of UNESCO World Heritage sites. This incredible world heritage comes in the form of incredible Byzantine mosaics within several of the town’s large churches. My understanding from the relatively limited signage available is that in the early 5th century, Ravenna was made capital of the then-Western Roman empire; shortly thereafter, it became the capital of the Ostrogothic kingdom. About a hundred years after that (~530 AD), it was conquered by Christian Byzantium (the eastern Roman empire) and they sent a variety of artisans to Ravenna to impart the latest styles. As a result, there is a LOT of incredible cultural history to view.

We started with the Basilica di San Vitale, which was built in ~525 and completed under Justinian’s rule. It has incredible architecture, marble, and mosaics throughout.

Also on site is the Mausoleo di Galla Placidia, which also has stunning mosaic work and sarcophagi dating back to the turn of the 5th and 6th centuries.

After these, we wandered across the central tourist area (~10 minutes away) to see another incredible sight: Basilica di Sant’Apollinare Nuovo.

On the way, we took in Ravenna’s many restaurants as we walked through Piazza del Popolo. On the way, we stopped in to a couple smaller, clearly “local” churches and noted some of the more trendy architecture (Ravenna really seems to like outdoor seating enclosed in lux-looking glass, with Edison-bulb lighting).

Basilica di Sant’Apollinare Nuovo was built by Ostrogothic emperor Theodoric and truly has the most incredible tile-work we saw all day, with vibrant scenes depicting a variety of Christian scenes. Thankfully, we arrived just before a 30+ person group of students arrived for a field trip, so we got to enjoy in relative silence and space.

Inside, there are no pews; however, the mosaics lining the inner walls are incredible.

After ducking out just as the large gaggle of teenagers was arriving, we wandered to our next stop: a local restaurant called Trattoria Al Cerchio. We ordered a couple Bolognese specialities (really, specialties from across Emilia Romagna), including tagliatelle with porcini mushrooms, cappelletti (“little hat” filled pasta) in Bolognese ragu, and a traditional dish that included fall-apart meatballs with peas in a rich red sauce. We finished the meal with Zuppa Inglese (an incredible dessert that changes regionally, but in this case included decadent vanilla and chocolate custards, raspberry shortcake, and some kind of raspberry liqueur) as well as an incredible Italian cheesecake. Could not have asked for a better meal!

After lunch, we meandered back in to the tourist district. We had timed tickets for the other major church complex within town, so to kill time we decided to visit a couple additional sites. The first was the church where Dante’s funeral was held, which has a fascinating underwater crypt.

It’s unclear why and how the crypt (located under the main altar, which makes it interesting visually to approach, as you have to walk to the front of the church and then up stairs as though you were going to perform the mass, then down stairs to below main-level to see the flooded area through a small window).

After visiting the church, we continued through the complex to visit Dante’s tomb itself, which is located adjacent to the church and near a nice little art museum as well.

The tomb itself isn’t too exciting, but the area was certainly beautiful. After that, we strolled back through Ravenna towards the other major church / museum complex. We saw a couple sights along the way, including a beautiful set of doors and an old arch that appeared to be part of the historic city walls.

After that, we hit the next couple major sites: the Museo Arcivescovile di Ravenna, Cappella Arcivescovile di Sant’Andrea, and Battistero Neoniano (o degli Ortodossi), which are all located on the same property.

The Museo Arcivescovile was wonderful and had a variety of fascinating Christian artifacts and artwork. Among them were a variety of papal items, incredible ecclesiastical vestments, and wonderful examples of early Christian items such as crosses, reliquaries, etc. Among the most interesting to me were the “ivory throne” of Maximilian, which depicts a variety of biblical scenes and the “Paschal Calendar” which was used between 532-626 AD to determine the Easter date based on the various requirements / restrictions imposed by the Council of Nicea. Both were in impeccable condition and appear to be incredibly rare artifacts.

There were other artifacts of interest as well, including a fascinating assortment of robes and the facade of what is believed to be a desk (?).

It turns out that the Cappella Arcivescovile di Sant’Andrea is actually located within the museum, so we visited that as well. Again, absolutely stunning mosaics!

Then, we headed for the Baptistery, which was the last stop of the day. It was also incredibly beautiful and tiled, likely built at the beginning of the 5th century. It apparently is one of the most incredible Orthodox sites of this kind to still exist, and I have to say, it was incredible!

After that, we made our way back to the car and headed back from Ravenna! Overall, a great day – I’m glad we planned it this way, as we had enough time to explore, but weren’t committed to staying overnight.

Tomorrow we’re off on another road trip – ideally heading down to the small country of San Marino!