Following The Path of The Exarchate of Ravenna - Part 3: Ravenna, a Hidden Gem

We departed from Molino Vitelli early in the morning to arrive at a perfect time in Ravenna. Our aim was to arrive at 9 am but we made it by around 10:30 am (life and coffee refills happen). 

I must confess that I wasn't expecting much of Ravenna, it looked like any other beach city out there: wide streets, palm trees, people biking everywhere. 

Until we arrived to the city center:

It has simplicity and good taste. The prices were unbelievably low - I'm talking dresses made of natural fabrics in 30 euros or less. I believe we were the only non-European tourists. Everyone was so polite and cheerful. 

Nick thinks only history buffs know about Ravenna, since its major attraction (pictures don't give it any justice) is the little conglomerate that contains the Mausoleo di Galla Placidia, the Basilica di San Vitale, and the Museo Nazionale di Ravenna:

Basilica di San Vitale

Main Apse

Dome

All of this reinforcing my newly found love for mosaics:

One section of the roof at the Mausoleo di Galla Placidia

Another corner of the Mausoleo's roof

Part of the Basilica's roof

I especially love this picture: both traditions (Eastern and Western rites) harmoniously cohabitating at the Basilica's roof.

Admiring all these beauty makes me wish that someday both of our traditions will become one - Catholics and Greek Orthodoxes at least. Pretty reasonable thought, hehe.

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Another thing that impressed me about this city was to discover that Dante Alighieri itself lived in it for a while, and died in it!:

Dante's tomb - front view

Dante's tomb - lateral view

The Museo Dante is clearly modern compared to the overall set of attractions in the city. It contains a good amount of interactive multimedia that I couldn't capture clearly in pictures. The pictures below is what I could rescue from my visit to it:

Chronology room 

Box that contained Dante's bones

Indiante: the Dante of the new millenium - wise as a tribal chief but playful as a child. 

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Besides these attractions and many more (I probably should write another post about Ravenna, since this is only 10% of what we saw and experienced), we also visited The Arian Baptistery (registered as UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1996), which reinforces my obsession, mosaics; and it's full of it, like the previous ones:

The Arian Baptistery

I love to see when things are hidden at plain sight

There's so much to see in this city! We stayed for three full days and we are committed to go back, especially for the Music Festival. We loved its vibe, pace, beauty, and mosaics!!

Check out our full itinerary HERE.

Stay tuned for my next posts, and hopefully you visit one of the places I write about someday. If that's the case, let me know!