Ravenna
UNESCO World Heritage Site (Early Christian Monuments Of Ravenna, 1996, Eight Monuments); Managed Across The Diocese, The Ministry Of Culture And The Comune · Ravenna, Emilia-Romagna
For about two centuries from 402 this was the capital of the Western Roman Empire, then of Theodoric's Ostrogothic kingdom, then Byzantium's foothold in Italy, and the mosaics its rulers commissioned survived precisely because the city afterwards sank into irrelevance and nobody had the money to modernise them. Eight buildings carry them and all eight are UNESCO-listed: San Vitale, where Justinian and Theodora face each other across the apse in panels finished in 547; the small cross-shaped Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, whose vault is a deep blue field of gold stars and which you may stay inside for only five minutes because your breath damages it; two baptisteries, two more basilicas and two mausolea. Dante died here in 1321 and is buried here rather than in Florence, which still sends the oil for the lamp on his tomb every September. The city is flat, which after Assisi or Siena is its own kind of relief.
Via San Vitale 17, Ravenna, Emilia-Romagna, 48121, Italy
Diocesan monuments roughly 09:00-19:00 from early March to early November and 10:00-17:00 from November to early March, with last admission about 30 minutes before closing; closed 25 December and 1 January. Galla Placidia and the Battistero Neoniano need a free timed slot and limit you to five minutes inside. Museo Nazionale closed Mondays. Dante's tomb free, 10:00-18:00 in winter and 10:00-19:00 in summer.