Italy
Ravenna
Byzantine mosaics so luminous the gold tiles still burn after fifteen centuries.
You walk through a plain brick doorway and the ceiling explodes into gold. Thousands of tesserae, cobalt and emerald and gold leaf pressed in glass, hold emperors, saints and a night sky in place. Ravenna hides its treasure behind the most ordinary walls in Italy.
Ravenna has been a capital three times: of the Western Roman Empire from the fifth century, of Theodoric's Gothic kingdom from 493, and of Byzantine Italy until 751. Eight of its early Christian monuments carry UNESCO status, and together they hold the finest Byzantine mosaics west of Istanbul. The Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, hardly bigger than a garden shed, keeps a midnight-blue vault of gold stars that has stopped visitors mid-breath since the fifth century. Dante spent his final exiled years here, and his remains rest in a small neoclassical tomb beside the Basilica of San Francesco.
Solo
Under the Galla Placidia starfield you can trace the gold tesserae at your own pace; this city was made for close looking.
Couple
Bicycles between mosaic sites, then cappelletti and a bottle of Sangiovese in a trattoria: intimacy is Ravenna's register.
Family
The mosaics out-colour any screen, the flat streets suit bikes, and the Marina di Ravenna beaches wait nearby.
- Eight early Christian monuments in one small city share a single UNESCO inscription.
- The Mausoleum of Galla Placidia holds a fifth-century starfield ceiling in a room the size of a shed.
- Dante spent his final years here, and his tomb stands beside the Basilica of San Francesco.
- The flat city moves by bicycle, and the mosaic sites sit minutes apart on foot.
Piadina folded hot around squacquerone and rocket is Romagna's street lunch perfected.
Cappelletti float like little hats in golden broth, a Sunday ritual across the province.
Gaiman
Argentina
Welsh teahouses serving bara brith and cream scones in the middle of Patagonian steppe.
Arica
Chile
One of humanity's earliest mummification traditions rests beneath Arica's beaches and headland.
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 a crater harbour where the world's smallest dolphins feed.
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 the water mirrors snow peaks and cardinals built their pleasure palaces.
Scilla
Italy
Homer's sea monster laired here, now swordfish boats patrol the Strait of Messina at dawn.