Ravenna

San Vitale at opening time, Dante's tomb by late afternoon

Start at opening time at San Vitale, before the groups arrive, and give it a good half hour; then cross the grounds to the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia for your booked slot. Walk on to the Neonian Baptistery and the Archiepiscopal Museum beside the cathedral, both on the same combined ticket.

Break for lunch at the covered market north of Piazza del Popolo or with a piadina from a kiosk.

In the afternoon visit Sant'Apollinare Nuovo on Via di Roma for its processions of martyrs and virgins, then walk to Dante's tomb beside San Francesco. If you still have energy, cross the railway to the Mausoleum of Theodoric. End with an aperitivo on Piazza del Popolo and dinner at a Romagnolo trattoria. With a second day, take the train or bus to Classe in the morning for Sant'Apollinare in Classe, then spend the afternoon on the beach at Marina di Ravenna in summer.

Piadina with squacquerone, cappelletti and Adriatic fish

Ravenna eats like the rest of Romagna, simply and generously. The everyday snack is piadina, a thin flatbread cooked on a griddle and folded around prosciutto, soft squacquerone cheese and rocket; kiosks all over town sell it. Pasta dishes include cappelletti, small filled pasta often served in broth, and strozzapreti with a meat or vegetable sauce.

Near the coast, menus turn to grilled and fried fish from the Adriatic.

For a quick, cheap lunch, the self-service counter in the covered central market, just north of Piazza del Popolo, is a good bet. Small pizzerias and trattorias around the old town serve inexpensive meals, and a few traditional places near the Palazzo di Teodorico keep proper Romagnolo menus. Prices rise slightly in the streets right around San Vitale. With dinner, order a glass of Sangiovese di Romagna or the white Albana.

Ferrara, Faenza ceramics and the sand at Marina di Ravenna

Ravenna sits on the railway between Bologna and the Adriatic resorts, so it combines easily with other towns. Ferrara, with its walled Renaissance centre, has direct trains, as do Faenza, a ceramics town, and Rimini on the coast. Bologna is about 80 km away and makes a natural pairing for a longer trip.

The sea is closer than many visitors realise. Marina di Ravenna, with its beaches and two yacht marinas, is a short drive or bus ride east, and resorts run down the coast to Cervia and Milano Marittima, which have their own bus link to Bologna airport. Sant'Apollinare in Classe, a few kilometres south, stands near the site of Classis, the naval harbour that Octavian built.

Summer is the busiest time on the coast, and the Ravenna Festival brings opera and concerts to the town from early summer. For the monuments alone, spring and autumn are calmer and cooler.

Three capitals in four centuries

Ravenna's mosaics come from a short, intense run as a capital. It served the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century, then Theodoric's Ostrogoths from 493 to 526, then the Byzantine governors from 553 to 751, and each power left buildings that compete with the others.

The oldest is the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, built around 402 under Emperor Honorius in honour of his sister, with a blue starry vault that surprises people who know it only from photographs. Theodoric's era gave the city Sant'Apollinare Nuovo and his own mausoleum, a squat stone drum topped by a single carved block; after the Byzantine conquest, Justinian had the king's remains scattered and the church turned to Orthodox worship, which is why the processions of saints on its walls replaced earlier Gothic court scenes. San Vitale crowns the Byzantine period.

The Mausoleum of Theodoric stands outside the centre, about 20 minutes on foot past the station, and Sant'Apollinare in Classe is a few kilometres south by bus or train, among the pine forest.

Dante's last years and the Darsena

Dante Alighieri spent his last years in Ravenna as the guest of Guido Novello da Polenta and finished the Paradiso here. His remains lie in a small neoclassical temple beside the Basilica of San Francesco, and the Dante Museum next door covers the long quarrel with Florence over his bones. A lamp in the tomb burns with oil sent by Florence every September.

For dinner, the historic centre and the Darsena, the old canal port beside the station, have the best choice. Order crescione, the stuffed Romagna flatbread, cappelletti with ragù or passatelli in broth.

Nine beaches and the Classe pine forest

Ravenna's coast runs for about 35 km with nine resorts, from Casalborsetti in the north through Marina di Ravenna and Punta Marina Terme to Lido di Savio, roughly 30 minutes by bus or 20 by car. Behind them, the Classe pine forest covers about 900 hectares with walking and cycling trails, and the Punte Alberete wetland to the north is part of the Po Delta Park. Mirabilandia, a large theme park, is a few minutes south of the city.

The eight UNESCO monuments and the two baptisteries

UNESCO inscribed the Early Christian Monuments of Ravenna on 7 December 1996 as a single property of eight buildings: the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, the Neonian Baptistery, Sant'Apollinare Nuovo, the Arian Baptistery, the Archiepiscopal Chapel, the Mausoleum of Theodoric, San Vitale and Sant'Apollinare in Classe.

The two baptisteries are the easiest to compare. The Neonian, next to the cathedral and dating from the 5th century, is described by UNESCO as the finest and most complete early Christian baptistery to survive; its dome shows Christ baptised in the Jordan, ringed by the twelve apostles. The Arian Baptistery, a few streets away, was built under Theodoric in the early 6th century for the Arian Christians of the Gothic court and repeats the same baptism scene with small but telling differences.

The Archiepiscopal Chapel, a cross-shaped oratory with mosaic vaults, is inside the Archiepiscopal Museum by the cathedral. A single combined ticket covers several of these sites, and it is worth buying online in summer.

In town, the public gardens, a small planetarium and the community garden inside the Rocca Brancaleone, the Venetian fortress near the station, make a quieter afternoon between mosaics. In summer, Mirabeach, the water park behind Mirabilandia, opens daily, and the Riviera beaches further south have open-air clubs and concerts most evenings.

At the southern edge of the Classe forest, the Ortazzo and Ortazzino wetlands and the mouth of the Bevano river are good for birdwatching in spring and autumn, and the basilica of Sant'Apollinare in Classe stands in the same southern stretch of pines.