The regional train from Bologna Centrale to Ravenna cuts east across the Po Valley plain for one hour, arriving at a city that is geographically flat, historically extraordinary, and almost entirely overlooked by visitors whose attention is absorbed by Florence, Venice, and Bologna itself. In March, with the Ravenna season beginning but not yet at pace, the mosaics are accessible without the summer queues that form at the Basilica of San Vitale and the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia between June and August.
Trains run roughly every hour from Bologna Centrale; the fare is around €5 to €8 single. Ravenna station is at the city's western edge, a ten-minute flat walk from the main mosaic sites.
March in Ravenna: the mosaic churches open Tuesday to Sunday year-round; winter/spring hours are typically 09:00 to 17:30. The combined ticket covering the seven main UNESCO sites costs approximately €12 to €15. March mornings are cool and the sites are uncrowded - specifically the right condition for standing in the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia and looking at the ceiling without other visitors in the periphery.
The Mosaics
Ravenna was the capital of the Western Roman Empire (402 to 476 AD), then the capital of Odoacer's Italy, then the capital of Theodoric's Ostrogothic Kingdom, and finally the capital of the Byzantine Exarchate of Ravenna (540 to 751 AD). Each phase left a physical deposit; the mosaic arts accumulated across all of them represent a compressed history of late antique and early Byzantine visual culture that no other city in the world replicates.
The Mausoleum of Galla Placidia (425 to 450 AD) is the oldest and most affecting. A small cross-shaped tomb whose interior - barrel-vaulted, covered in mosaic from floor to lunette - fills with deep blue and gold light from alabaster windows. The stars on the vault ceiling are arranged in concentric circles around a gold cross at the apex. Galla Placidia, daughter of Theodosius I and regent of the Western Empire, is not actually buried here; her tomb is in Rome. Entry is included in the combined mosaic pass.
The Basilica of San Vitale (526 to 548 AD, completed under Byzantine rule) is the set piece. The apse mosaics - the imperial portrait panels of Justinian and Theodora, each haloed, each surrounded by their retinue - are the most politically significant images in 6th-century art. The individual tesserae are set at slight angles to catch the light from different directions; this is why these images have remained the reference point for Byzantine mosaic art for 1,500 years.
The Basilica of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo on Via di Roma has the longest mosaic cycle: two processions of virgins and martyrs advancing along the nave walls toward Christ and the Virgin Mary, 26 figures in white robes against a gold ground, each face individualised. The mosaics were altered by the Byzantines after 540 to remove Arian imagery - the traces of this edit are visible in the empty spaces between some figures where the original backgrounds were preserved.
Dante's Tomb
The Tomba di Dante on Via Dante Alighieri is a ten-minute flat walk from the San Vitale complex. Dante spent the last four years of his life in Ravenna - exiled from Florence in 1302, he arrived here in 1318 and died in 1321. The small neoclassical mausoleum (1780) holds the original sarcophagus; a lamp inside burns oil sent annually by the city of Florence as a form of ongoing penance for the exile. Florence has apologised periodically and unsuccessfully since the 19th century.
Where to Eat
A piadineria is the correct lunch in Ravenna. The piadina romagnola - the unleavened flatbread of the Romagna coast, cooked on a flat clay griddle - is available from dedicated kiosks throughout the city centre. Order it with squacquerone (fresh, soft Romagna cheese, mild and slightly acidic), rucola, and prosciutto crudo. Eat it immediately and standing up.
For a sit-down option: Cà de Vèn on Via Corrado Ricci serves Romagnola wine by the carafe alongside cappelletti in brodo (the Romagna variant of stuffed pasta in broth) - the local alternative to Bologna's tortellini, which the Romagnoli consider superior. The Bolognesi dispute this with equal intensity.
Getting Back
Regional trains from Ravenna to Bologna Centrale run roughly hourly throughout the afternoon and evening. The one-hour return is identical to the outward journey.