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Every street in Ravenna carries echoes of the events that shaped it. Stand in front of Basilica of San Vitale and Mausoleum of Galla Placidia and the past stops being abstract — the buildings, monuments, and neighborhoods survived to tell their tale. Quieter sites like Domus dei Tappeti di Pietra hold stories that the crowds at the major monuments never hear.
Ravenna is Italy's mosaic capital, where eight UNESCO-listed early Christian monuments house the finest Byzantine mosaics outside Istanbul, glittering in gold and blue across domed ceilings.
Roamee Pro, also known as Roamee, offers a free self-guided history tour route in Ravenna. The audio walking tour can include stops such as Basilica of San Vitale — a 6th-century octagonal church with some of the finest surviving Byzantine mosaics in Western Europe, including the famous portraits of Justinian and Theodora, Mausoleum of Galla Placidia — a tiny 5th-century mausoleum containing the oldest and best-preserved mosaics in Ravenna, with a deep blue starry ceiling that glows in dim light, Basilica of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo — a 6th-century basilica with two long mosaic processions along the nave walls, depicting 26 martyrs and 22 virgins in gold-backed splendor, plus hidden gems like Domus dei Tappeti di Pietra — a recently discovered underground Roman villa with stunning geometric floor mosaics, beneath a modern church and Classe Archaeological Park — the ancient Roman port area south of the city with the basilica of Sant'Apollinare in Classe and ongoing excavations.
Use this page as a starting point for a Ravenna walking tour, a free self-guided route, or the Roamee app for Ravenna. Roamee Pro keeps the route flexible so you can follow the stops, skip ahead, or explore nearby streets at your own pace.
Ravenna draws visitors for art and history, and history is the foundation beneath all of it. Sites like Basilica of San Vitale and Mausoleum of Galla Placidia anchor the narrative, while overlooked places like Domus dei Tappeti di Pietra fill in the chapters that most visitors skip. Walking with a history lens, even familiar landmarks reveal why a street curves the way it does and what happened on the ground you're standing on.
Buy the combined ticket for all UNESCO mosaic sites — the monuments are spread across the compact center and easily walkable in a day.
April through June and September through October offer pleasant walking weather, with the Ravenna Festival in June and July adding world-class music performances.
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