Tuesday, 27 August 2013

Monday 26th August 2013 – Ravenna, Italy

What a lovely city! And full of history with no less than eight UNESCO World Herritage Monuments. A single €9.50 ticket allows access to five of the sites whilst another is free so we had our day planned. Revenna city centre is very compact and, as it was only a 20 minute walk in, it was easy to see all of the sites in one day. The Tourist Information Centre map was excellent, showing all of the sites in the city and allowing us to plot a route between the UNESCO sites that included other interesting locations.
Every site had amazing 5th and 6th Century mosaics of incredible quality but my favourite was the Basilica di Sant'Apollinare Nuovo. It is famous for its mosaic of the Three Wise Men but there is so much more and all as vibrant as the day they were made.
It wasn't just the UNESCO sites, the whole city is intriguing and we could have spent much longer wandering around the streets.
The sightseeing was interrupted by a very welcome break at lunch time for a pizza – we couldn't leave Italy without having had one!
Ravenna is on the list for a possible stop on the way home – there is much more to see!
Photos: On our journey yesterday we saw two church towers that were definitely not straight and this we named 'The Leaning Tower of Ravenna' – we are beginning to think that the Italians don't understand how to construct foundations!; The Three Wise Men mosaic.


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