Ravenna
 

I am thinking of a quick trip to Italy with a primary focus on Venice. However, I've always heard that Ravenna has great art in the form of mosaics preserved from centuries ago. Is this correct? If so, a few questions.

Is it worth a day trip from Venice? It looks like a train would be around 3.5 hours. Would a car be faster? Once in Ravenna, how close together are the major sites?

Thanks!

Correct? Yes, the mosaics date from the 5th to 7th century. Worth a day trip? I'd say yes.

Most of the sites are in the center of the town and thus within walking distance, with the exception of S. Apollinare in Classe. Definitely see S. Vitale, Mausoleo di Galla Placidia (next to S. Vitale) and S. Apollinare Nuovo. And I remember a nice old market hall in the town center where we bought excellent fruit.

Well you have already checked the train schedules so you know it will be a lenghty day trip BUT the mosiacs are wonderful. Ravenna is very walkable once you get there. A shorter trip with amzing art would be to Padua to see the frescos.

You're not going to save that much time driving: apart from anything else, if you're based in Venice you've got the hassle of getting out to Piazzale Roma and collecting your car.

BUT - and there are few bigger Ravenna fans than me - I'd think twice about trying to fit Ravenna into a "quick" Venice trip.

There's a great deal more to Ravenna than its extraordinary mosaics: its churches, especially San Vitale, are central to the history of Western ecclesiastical architecture, and understanding the background to the churches' building, and their subsequent influence on all kinds of other things, is a cricial part of undertstanding Ravenna.

There's real information overload there: I certainly got astonishingly little out of the first couple of quick days I grabbed there from trips elsewhere.

I'd give the extra day to Venice. I might go along the Brenta canal for a change of scenery from Venice, but trying to appreciate Ravenna would be excessive.

Much quicker by car, it's a straight shot by car, while the fast train (with reservations) goes to Ferrara, then you trundle across the plains on a slow regional.

But it is ever so worth it! Those mosaics will leave you speechless, they are so glowing and fresh as if put in yesterday, and so rich in detail, and so different from the Renaissance styles you see elsewhere in abundance.

Ravenna is a nice and quiet no-big-deal town, a welcome relief after places like Florence and Venice. So give it a day - you'll be back in time for a nightcap in Venice.

We left after breakfast, had lunch in Ravenna in between mosics visits (all but the In Classe locations are walkable in town), took the late-afternoon train to Ferrara, walked a bit into the nearby streets, found a great place to eat and continued after dinner on the fast train. Made for a splendid outing!

Don't miss S.Apollinare in Classe, there are frequent buses (about every 10 minutes) from train station or Piazza San Francseco to the Basillica, take about 15 minutes.