Italy
Ravenna
Byzantine mosaics so luminous the gold tiles still burn after fifteen centuries.
You walk through an unassuming brick doorway and the ceiling explodes into gold. Thousands of glass and stone tesserae — cobalt, emerald, gold leaf pressed between glass — depict emperors, saints, and starry skies in a detail that makes you forget the mosaics are fifteen centuries old. Ravenna hoards its treasures behind plain exteriors.
Ravenna is a city in Emilia-Romagna, Italy, that served as the capital of the Western Roman Empire, the Ostrogothic Kingdom, and the Byzantine Exarchate between the 5th and 8th centuries. Eight of its early Christian monuments hold UNESCO World Heritage status, and together they contain the finest collection of Byzantine mosaics outside Istanbul. The Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, barely larger than a garden shed, houses a midnight-blue ceiling of gold stars that has transfixed visitors since the 5th century. Dante Alighieri spent his final years in exile here and is buried in a tomb beside the Basilica di San Francesco. The city's quiet streets and bicycle culture feel closer to northern Europe than to the tourist circuits of Tuscany, 90 minutes south.
Solo
Ravenna is a city for close looking. Alone with the mosaics in the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia — no crowds, no audio guide chatter — you can trace every gold tessera at your own pace.
Couple
The intimacy of the city suits two. Rent bicycles, move between mosaic sites at your own pace, then settle into a trattoria for cappelletti in brodo and a bottle of Sangiovese.
Family
Children respond to the sheer visual impact of the mosaics — the colours and gold are more vivid than any screen. The flat, bikeable city and nearby beaches at Marina di Ravenna add variety.
- Eight UNESCO heritage sites in the city centre are all within walking distance of each other — one ticket covers four of them.
- The Mausoleo di Galla Placidia holds some of the oldest intact mosaics in the Western world — a tiny fifth-century tomb with a starfield ceiling.
- The mosaic workshop at Koko Mosaico offers hands-on sessions in the Byzantine technique — cutting and setting tesserae with the same tools used 1,500 years ago.
- The Po Delta cycling route begins in Ravenna — flat terrain through lagoons and fishing villages accessible by hire bike from the station.
Cappelletti in brodo, tiny pasta parcels floating in a clear golden broth.
Piadina romagnola stuffed with squacquerone cheese and rocket, folded and grilled on a flat iron.
Passatelli in broth, breadcrumb-and-parmesan noodles pushed through a press.
Gaiman
Argentina
Welsh teahouses serving bara brith and cream scones in the middle of the Patagonian steppe.
Arica
Chile
Chile's northernmost city where pre-Inca mummies 2,000 years older than Egypt's lie beneath the streets.
Bodh Gaya
India
Maroon-robed monks chanting beneath the descendant of the fig tree where Buddhism itself began.
Akaroa
New Zealand
French street names and croissant bakeries in a volcanic harbour Britain almost lost to France.
Scanno
Italy
A mountain village above a heart-shaped lake, where women still wear traditional dress on feast days.
Orta San Giulio
Italy
A village on a lake you've never heard of, facing an island with one silent monastery.
Lake Como
Italy
Cypress-lined shores where water mirrors snow-capped peaks and silk merchants built their palaces.
Scilla
Italy
Homer's sea monster laired here, now swordfish boats patrol the Strait of Messina at dawn.