Appianline -

Ravenna is of extraordinary importance for its supreme artistic mastery of the art of mosaics. The buildings are furthermore testimony of the artistic and religious relationship and contacts of an important period in the history of European culture". It is an ancient city which 1,500 years ago was capital three times: of the western Roman Empire, of Theodoric King of the Goths, of the Byzantine Empire in Europe. The magnificence of those periods has left Ravenna with a great heritage of monuments, religious buildings decorated with mosaics which have been declared patrimony of humanity by UNESCO. The art of mosaics was not born in Ravenna but it did find its greatest level of expression here where Christian iconography was born, a mixture of symbolism and realism, of Roman and Byzantine influence. The international heritage of Ravenna, city of mosaics, has been recognised by UNESCO. Ravenna is a city of art near the coast, 35 kilometres of coast which offer a great variety of possibilities. The resorts of Ravenna blend into the beaches, pinewoods and marshes and offer the tourist and visitor an environment characterised by wide beaches of fine sand, pinewoods which were praised by Dante and Byron in their verses.

Ravenna to see

The beauty of the mosaics and harmony of the architecture are not the only features. In Ravenna you can stroll among bell-towers and monastic cloisters, the frescoes in Giotto style of Santa Chiara to the baroque apse of Sant’Apollinare Nuovo. Ravenna is roman, gothic, byzantine and also medieval, venetian and finally modern and contemporary, civilised and hospitable, full of events and shows of international prestige.

Eight monuments built over a period of 1500 years have been added to the UNESCO World Heritage List, they are The Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, The Cathedral Baptistry, Sant'Apollinare Nuovo, Arian Baptistry, The Archiepiscopal Chapel, Theodoric's Mausoleum, The Basilica of San Vitale, Sant'Apollinare in Classe.

In the surroundings: tourism in Ravenna is not only art or sea: for nature lovers nothing can be more exciting than a visit to the Punte Alberete reserve or to the silent marshes of the Po delta where specimens of vegetation grow and where rare species of fauna live. San Vitale Pinewood, the tide ways and Classe Pinewood are natural areas of great prestige included into the Po Delta National Park where water can be found in so many ways: marshes, bogs, lagoons, river outlets; the dunes situated immediately to the south of Ravenna between Lido di Dante and Lido di Classe, Punte Alberete Nature Reserve, just to suggest some interesting nature areas.