Gita ai Mosaici di Ravenna — Capitale dell'Arte Bizantina UNESCO
Ravenna (the city 75 km east of Bologna, accessible in 1 hour by direct train) is the UNESCO World Heritage capital of Byzantine mosaic art — the city that was the capital of the Western Roman Empire (402-476 AD), the capital of the Ostrogothic Kingdom of Italy (493-540 AD), and the capital of the Byzantine Exarchate of Ravenna (584-751 AD), each period leaving the extraordinary mosaic-decorated churches and mausoleums that make Ravenna the most important Byzantine art site outside Constantinople.
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Mausoleum of Galla Placidia — Oldest Mosaics (425-430 AD)
The tiny Mausoleum of Galla Placidia contains the oldest and most moving mosaics in Ravenna — a deep indigo starry sky ceiling (20,000 gold-backed tesserae), the Good Shepherd in the lunette, and a peacock symbolizing immortality.
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Basilica di San Vitale — Justinian & Theodora Court Mosaics
The hexagonal San Vitale (completed 548 AD) contains Ravenna's most celebrated mosaics — the Emperor Justinian I and Empress Theodora portraits on the chancel walls represent the highest achievement of Byzantine pictorial art.
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Sant'Apollinare Nuovo — Mosaic Procession of Saints
King Theodoric's basilica (6th century) has the longest continuous mosaic frieze in the western world — 22 male martyrs and 22 female saints process toward Christ and the Virgin in two solemn lines above the nave colonnades.
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Sant'Apollinare in Classe — Mosaic Transfiguration (549 AD)
5km from Ravenna, Sant'Apollinare in Classe is the finest early Christian basilica in Italy — the apse mosaic's pastoral landscape setting (the earliest landscape in Christian art) and the golden cross Transfiguration are extraordinarily beautiful.
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Dante's Tomb — Ravenna's Literary Shrine
Dante Alighieri died in Ravenna in 1321, exiled from Florence, completing the Paradiso cantos here. The neoclassical tomb in the Zona del Silenzio contains an oil lamp fed by Florentine olive oil — a reconciliation gesture Florence makes annually.
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Ravenna Mosaic Artisan Workshops
Ravenna's living mosaic workshops (the Accademia di Belle Arti teaches Byzantine techniques to international students) produce restoration work for churches worldwide. Several workshops near the city center welcome visitors and take custom commissions.