Self-Guided Walking Tour in Ravenna

Why Walk Ravenna? A Self-Guided Tour

Ravenna is a flat, compact town where the whole reason you came is hidden behind plain brick walls. From the outside these are dull early-Christian boxes. Inside they hold the best-preserved mosaics on earth, gold and blue ceilings made fifteen centuries ago when this was the capital of the Western Roman Empire and then of Byzantine Italy. Eight of these monuments are a single UNESCO World Heritage listing, and this walk hits seven of the eight plus Dante's tomb in one loop. You do not need a car, a bus, or much fitness. You need about half a day and a willingness to keep tilting your head back.

Why this route and not just wandering: the mosaic sites cluster in two tight knots, and most of them sell tickets through one combined pass. Doing them in geographic order saves you backtracking across town and lets you buy the right ticket once. The walk starts at the lone monument out by the train station, drops into the great San Vitale complex, threads through the cathedral quarter, pauses in the main square and at Dante's grave, then closes with the two basilica-and-baptistery sites near the loop back.

The total is roughly 5.5 km of walking on flat pavement and cobbles, easily managed in an afternoon. Be honest with yourself about mosaic fatigue: by the fifth gold ceiling some people stop seeing them. The route is built so the two non-negotiable masterpieces, San Vitale and Galla Placidia, come early when your eyes are fresh.

The Route: 9 Stops

Swipe through images or scroll names below

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

Route Map

Your Ravenna Walking Tour, Stop by Stop

1. 1

   Mausoleo di Teodorico

   

   You start at the strangest of all Ravenna's monuments, a squat stone drum sitting alone on a lawn a short walk from the train station. The thing that makes people stare is the roof: a single slab of Istrian limestone weighing around 300 tonnes, hauled here whole and set as one monolithic dome. Nobody is certain how the Ostrogoths lifted it. This is the burial place built for Theodoric the Great, who died in 526, and it stands apart from the city's Byzantine mosaic churches in both date and feel. There are no mosaics inside, just bare stone and a porphyry bathtub-sarcophagus, so the appeal is entirely the engineering and the quiet. Entry is 4 EUR, open daily 8:30 to 19:00. Ten minutes inside is plenty. Then walk southwest toward the centre, about 1.5 km along Via delle Industrie.

   Hours

   Daily: 8:30 AM – 7:00 PM

   Price

   €4

   Website

   museiravenna.cultura.gov.it ↗

   20 min walk to next stop

2. 2

   Basilica di San Vitale

   

   This is the one. From the brick exterior you would never guess, but step into the octagonal interior and the apse erupts in green, gold and deep blue. The two famous panels face each other across the chancel: Emperor Justinian with his court on one side, Empress Theodora with hers on the other, both from around 547 when the church was consecrated. The composition, the colour, the sheer survival of it all is the single best reason anyone comes to Ravenna. Construction began in 532, and it became a UNESCO site in 1996. Entry is 12 EUR, and crucially this is the combined ticket that also covers Galla Placidia, the Neonian Baptistery, Sant'Apollinare Nuovo and the Archbishop's Museum, so buy it here. Open daily 9:00 to 19:00. Give it 30 minutes. Galla Placidia is 75 m away in the same garden complex.

   Hours

   Daily: 9:00 AM – 7:00 PM

   Price

   €12

   Website

   ravennamosaici.it ↗

   2 min walk to next stop

3. 3

   Mausoleo di Galla Placidia

   

   A few steps across the lawn from San Vitale sits a tiny brick chapel that delivers the most loved image in the city. Duck through the low door, let your eyes adjust, and the vault overhead becomes a deep blue sky scattered with hundreds of gold stars, the oldest mosaics in Ravenna, made around 425 to 430. The smallness is the point: you stand almost underneath it. The building was likely never actually the tomb of Galla Placidia, who died in Rome in 450, but the name has stuck for centuries. Cole Porter is said to have been inspired by this starry ceiling on his honeymoon. Your San Vitale ticket already covers entry, and in busy months a timed slot of a few minutes is enforced to protect it. Open daily 9:00 to 18:30. Linger, then head south about 700 m toward the cathedral square and the Archbishop's Museum.

   Hours

   Daily: 9:00 AM – 6:30 PM

   Price

   €4

   Website

   ravennamosaici.it ↗

   9 min walk to next stop

4. 4

   Museo Arcivescovile

   

   After two free-standing chapels, this stop is upstairs inside the Archbishop's Palace beside the Duomo, so look for the entrance rather than a monument on the street. Two things justify the climb. The first is the Cappella Arcivescovile, a small private oratory and the only surviving private chapel mosaics from the early Christian world, including a striking Christ shown as a warrior. The second is the ivory Throne of Maximian, an intricately carved 6th-century bishop's chair that is a treasure of Byzantine ivory work. The museum was founded in 1734, the first diocesan museum in Italy. Entry is 5.50 EUR, or it is included on your San Vitale combined ticket. Open daily 9:00 to 19:00. Allow 20 to 30 minutes. From here the Neonian Baptistery is barely 150 m east, right beside the cathedral.

   Hours

   Daily: 9:00 AM – 7:00 PM

   Price

   €5.50

   Website

   ravennamosaici.it ↗

   2 min walk to next stop

5. 5

   Battistero Neoniano

   

   Right next to the cathedral stands a small octagonal building that is the oldest surviving monument in Ravenna, the Orthodox (Neonian) baptistery from the 5th century. Look straight up: the dome shows the Baptism of Christ in the Jordan ringed by a procession of the twelve apostles in white and gold, the most complete early baptistery mosaic anywhere. The Orthodox label here means the mainstream Christians of the day, as opposed to the Arians you will meet at the last stop, so the two baptisteries make a deliberate pair. Entry is 3.50 EUR, again covered by the San Vitale combined ticket, open daily 9:00 to 18:45. Ten to fifteen minutes is right; it is one room. Step back out and walk roughly 350 m east along the lanes to Piazza del Popolo, the town's main square.

   Hours

   Daily: 9:00 AM – 6:45 PM

   Price

   €3.50

   Website

   ravennamosaici.it ↗

   5 min walk to next stop

6. 6

   Piazza del Popolo

   

   Time to give your neck a rest. After a run of dim interiors you come out into the open civic heart of Ravenna, an arcaded square with a distinctly Venetian look left from the centuries Venice ruled the town. Two tall columns carry the city's patron saints, and the surrounding palazzi house cafes under their porticoes. This is the place to sit with an espresso, watch the passeggiata in the early evening, and plan the rest. It is free and open around the clock, so there is no ticket and no rush. Grab a table under the arcades; a coffee standing at the bar runs about 1.20 to 1.50 EUR. When you are ready, Dante's tomb is only a couple of minutes away, just southeast off the square down the quiet lanes toward the Dante zone.

   Hours

   Open 24/7

   Price

   Free

   1 min walk to next stop

7. 7

   Tomba di Dante

   

   A short step from the square you enter a hushed pocket of the city marked as the zona dantesca, the zone of silence around the poet's grave. The tomb itself is a small neoclassical temple where Dante Alighieri has lain since he died in exile here in 1321, refused by his native Florence ever since. A lamp inside is kept perpetually lit, fed by oil that Florence sends each year as a quiet act of penance. Entry is free, daily 10:00 to 18:00, and around it lie the Franciscan cloisters and the Quadrarco di Braccioforte garden, all part of the same quiet enclosure. It takes five minutes and costs nothing, but it is the emotional anchor of the walk. From here it is about 300 m east to Sant'Apollinare Nuovo, the next great mosaic basilica.

   Hours

   Daily: 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM

   Price

   Free

   Website

   turismo.ra.it ↗

   4 min walk to next stop

8. 8

   Basilica di Sant'Apollinare Nuovo

   

   Back to gold. This long basilica was Theodoric's own palace church, begun as an Arian place of worship in the early 6th century before it was reconsecrated. Walk down the nave and look up at both side walls: two endless processions in mosaic, twenty-two virgins on one side moving toward the Madonna, twenty-six martyrs on the other moving toward Christ, each figure carrying a crown. Lower down you can still spot ghostly hands left on a column where Arian figures were edited out after the Byzantines took over, a rare visible scar of religious politics. Entry is 10.50 EUR, or it is on your San Vitale combined ticket, open daily 9:00 to 18:30. Give it 20 to 25 minutes. From here the last stop, the Arian Baptistery, lies about 350 m north as you start looping back.

   Hours

   Daily: 9:00 AM – 6:30 PM

   Price

   €10.50

   Website

   ravennamosaici.it ↗

   4 min walk to next stop

9. 9

   Battistero degli Ariani

   

   The quiet finale, tucked behind the Church of the Holy Spirit on a side street, and the one most tour groups skip. This was the baptistery of Theodoric's Arian cathedral, built around the turn of the 6th century. Its dome mosaic mirrors the Neonian one you saw earlier: the same Baptism of Christ with the apostles, but this is the Arian version of the same scene, which makes seeing both the real reward of doing this circuit. At 1 EUR it is the cheapest ticket in town and a deliberate choice to end on, not filler. Check the hours, as they are short and split: Monday to Thursday 9:00 to 12:00, and Friday to Sunday 9:00 to 12:00 plus 14:00 to 17:00. Five minutes inside finishes the loop. From here you are roughly 1.2 km from the Mausoleo di Teodorico and the station where you began.

   Hours

   Mon-Thu: 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM | Fri-Sun: 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM, 2:00 – 5:00 PM

   Price

   €1

   Website

   musei.emiliaromagna.beniculturali.it ↗

Self-Guided Tour vs. Group Tour in Ravenna

Here is the honest math. A self-guided loop with the San Vitale combined ticket (12 EUR) covers five of the headline monuments: San Vitale, Galla Placidia, the Neonian Baptistery, the Archbishop's Museum and Sant'Apollinare Nuovo. Add the Mausoleo di Teodorico (4 EUR) and the Arian Baptistery (1 EUR) and your entire entry bill is 17 EUR, which is genuinely excellent value for seven UNESCO-grade sites. Dante's tomb and Piazza del Popolo are free. With this page in hand you have the order, the prices and the opening hours, which is most of what a guide gives you.

Guided mosaic walks in Ravenna typically run from around 20 to 35 EUR per person on top of the entry tickets, and a private guide costs considerably more. What you buy with that is interpretation: someone pointing out the edited-out Arian figures at Sant'Apollinare Nuovo, the symbolism in the Galla Placidia vault, the politics behind two rival baptisteries. The mosaics genuinely reward this, because at first glance one gold ceiling looks much like the next.

My take: if you visit only one or two sites, go self-guided and read the panels. If you are doing the full circuit and you care why these images look the way they do, a single guided session early in the day, then the rest on your own, is the best of both. Skip a guide entirely if you are short on time and just want to stand under the stars in Galla Placidia.

How Long Does This Ravenna Tour Take?

Budget about four to five hours for the full loop with all interiors, which matches the roughly two and a half hours of walking-plus-stops the route is timed at, plus a real coffee break. The two sites that deserve the most time are San Vitale and the Galla Placidia mausoleo; do not rush them, and do them while your eyes are fresh. The baptisteries and the Archbishop's Museum are single rooms you can absorb in ten to fifteen minutes each.

The natural break is Piazza del Popolo, exactly halfway through the route. Sit under the arcades with an espresso before tackling Dante's tomb and the second basilica cluster. If you would rather eat, the Mercato Coperto a couple of minutes north of the square is open daily and good for a quick panino and a glass of Sangiovese. If you feel mosaic fatigue setting in, the Arian Baptistery at the end is short, cheap and forgiving, so you can finish strong without a long final stretch.

Tips for Walking in Ravenna

• Timing and transport: Ravenna station is a 2-minute walk from the Mausoleo di Teodorico, so arrive by train and start the loop there. Begin by 9:30 to clear the major mosaic sites before tour groups peak around late morning.
• Terrain and shoes: the route is flat the whole way, but the old centre is cobbled and the Galla Placidia step is low and uneven. Flat comfortable shoes are fine; you need no climbing gear and there are no hills.
• Restrooms: there are no public toilets inside the small mausolea or baptisteries. Use the facilities at the San Vitale visitor complex when you buy the combined ticket, or a cafe on Piazza del Popolo (buy a coffee first).
• Food and drink: at the Mercato Coperto just north of Piazza del Popolo, open daily from 9:00, grab a piadina romagnola, the local flatbread, for a few euros, or a plate of cured meats with a glass of local Sangiovese.
• Photo: the Galla Placidia starry vault is the shot. Stand directly under the dome, point your phone straight up, and turn off the flash, which is forbidden anyway. Mornings give the calmest light through the alabaster windows.

Common Questions