• Pinterest
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
Italian Notes
  • HOME
  • PEOPLE & PLACES
    • Abruzzo
    • Basilicata
    • Calabria
    • Campania
    • Emilia-Romagna
    • Friuli-Venezia Giulia
    • Lazio
    • Liguria
    • Lombardia-Lombardy
    • Marche
    • Molise
    • Piemonte-Piedmont
    • Puglia – Apulia
    • Sicilia
    • Toscana-Tuscany
    • Trentino-Alto Adige – Trentino-South Tyrol
    • Umbria
    • Veneto
  • FOOD
    • Antipasti
    • Primi piatti
    • Secondi piatti
    • Dolci
  • PR/ADVERTISING
  • Search
  • Menu Menu

5 not to be missed sights in Ravenna

When you’ve finished with the obligatory World Heritage sites in Ravenna, here’s a suggestion of five other sights that are too good to go unnoticed.



Booking.com

Sights in Ravenna - Porta Adriana

Porta Adriana at the end of one of Ravenna’s many car free shopping streets.

Porta Adriana

When Lord Byron, who was in charge of his illegitimate daughter Allegra arrived in Ravenna in 1819, he was stopped at Porta Adriana because a procession was in progress in the city center. This must have given him time to contemplate the city gate which dates back to the Roman Empire. The gate was reconstructed and decorated with marble in the 16th century. At that time it also had two round towers on each side of the gate and a drawbridge leading over the moat that surrounded the city centre.

Sights in Ravenna - Piazza del Popolo night

Even late at night there are people at the outdoor restaurants on Piazza del Popolo

Piazza del Popolo

From early morning to late evening, people are hanging out on Piazza del Popolo. The square with the beautiful Ventian style Palazzo Communale serves as the centre of Ravenna, linking a comprehensive web of pedestrian streets with lots of cafés, bars, restaurants, gelaterie, shops and galleries. Pure consumer delight.

Sights in Ravenna - Piazza del Popolo columns

Perched on columns in Piazza del Popolo are the two saints Sant Appolinaire and San Vitale.

Martyrs with a view

To me there seems to be an awful lot of columns in Ravenna, which is probably an exaggeration, but still I plan to start a photographic collection next time I go there. I’ll start with the two columns on Piazza del Popolo. Balancing on one of them is Sant Appolinaire, a Syrian Christian who became bishop and miracle maker in Ravenna until he was beaten up and tortured in the most gruesome manner three times and finally died. His relic, or most of it, is kept in Basilica of Sant’Apollinare Nuovo.

Hovering over the other column is San Vitale: another early Christian martyr and patron saint of Ravenna, who is said to have been buried alive near the place, where the famous Basilica of San Vitale now stands.

Sights in Ravenna - Mercato Coperto

At the covered market in Ravenna, you’ll find booth after booth with all the local delicacies

Mercato coperto

The covered market on Piazza Andrea Costa is a mouth watering exhibition of the very best Italian fresh produce, whether it is cheese, ham, sausages, pasta, fruit or vegetables. It is a perfect place to stock up before travelling, if you want to take a bite of Italy home, or to buy food for an unforgettable picnic.

Sights in Ravenna - Yellow bikes

Though yellow this is not a public bike, but I liked the colours.

Yellow bikes

In the daytime Ravenna is filled with bikes, some of which are part of the C’entro in bici programme. C’entro in bici means that the municipal has acquired a number of bikes to the free disposal of the public. The yellow ones are dedicated to tourists – just ask for a key in the tourist office or at your hotel. For 5 euros you can also rent a bike and ride out of town. The area is flatter than Holland, there are cycling lanes everywhere and the distance to the coast is less that 10 km.

For day trips (plus 30 km each way) you could go to Lugo, Comacchio, the Rubicon River or Porto Garibaldi.

Share this entry
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Pinterest
  • Share on Reddit
  • Share by Mail
Maps were disabled by the visitor on this site. Click to open the map in a new window.
5 replies
  1. Sophie
    Sophie says:
    March 29, 2011 at 12:24 pm

    Ravenna sounds like a very pretty city. Next time in Italy…

    Reply
  2. Nikhil Chandra
    Nikhil Chandra says:
    March 12, 2012 at 8:09 am

    Had you included a large pic on any of the attractions, it would have made it easy to pin it as a board on Pinterest. BTW nice insight :-)

    Reply
  3. Ellen Christian
    Ellen Christian says:
    November 23, 2013 at 9:38 pm

    The Mercato coperto sounds like it would be an amazing place to visit!

    Reply
    • admin
      admin says:
      November 24, 2013 at 4:41 pm

      For foodies like me all Italian market are a wonderland:)

      Reply

Trackbacks & Pingbacks

  1. Best Travel Blog Posts | Week 2 | TBU Book of Travel Bloggers says:
    October 21, 2013 at 11:07 am

    […] learnt the 5 not to be missed sights in Ravenna from this post by Italian […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Want to join the discussion?
Feel free to contribute!

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Followon TwitterSubscribeto RSS Feed

Booking

Booking.com

Rental cars

More about food

Antipasti recipes - Italian NotesANTIPASTI RECIPES

Primi Piatti - Italian Notes

PRIMI PIATTI

Secondi piatti - Italian Notes

SECONDI PIATTI

Dolci - Italian Notes

DOLCI

Lemon cream custardLemon cream custardBroccoli and date salad
Scroll to top

This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies.

Accept settingsHide notification onlySettings

Cookie and Privacy Settings



How we use cookies

We may request cookies to be set on your device. We use cookies to let us know when you visit our websites, how you interact with us, to enrich your user experience, and to customize your relationship with our website.

Click on the different category headings to find out more. You can also change some of your preferences. Note that blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on our websites and the services we are able to offer.

Essential Website Cookies

These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our website and to use some of its features.

Because these cookies are strictly necessary to deliver the website, refusing them will have impact how our site functions. You always can block or delete cookies by changing your browser settings and force blocking all cookies on this website. But this will always prompt you to accept/refuse cookies when revisiting our site.

We fully respect if you want to refuse cookies but to avoid asking you again and again kindly allow us to store a cookie for that. You are free to opt out any time or opt in for other cookies to get a better experience. If you refuse cookies we will remove all set cookies in our domain.

We provide you with a list of stored cookies on your computer in our domain so you can check what we stored. Due to security reasons we are not able to show or modify cookies from other domains. You can check these in your browser security settings.

Google Analytics Cookies

These cookies collect information that is used either in aggregate form to help us understand how our website is being used or how effective our marketing campaigns are, or to help us customize our website and application for you in order to enhance your experience.

If you do not want that we track your visit to our site you can disable tracking in your browser here:

Other external services

We also use different external services like Google Webfonts, Google Maps, and external Video providers. Since these providers may collect personal data like your IP address we allow you to block them here. Please be aware that this might heavily reduce the functionality and appearance of our site. Changes will take effect once you reload the page.

Google Webfont Settings:

Google Map Settings:

Google reCaptcha Settings:

Vimeo and Youtube video embeds:

Other cookies

The following cookies are also needed - You can choose if you want to allow them:

Accept settingsHide notification only