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Conducting a joyful Mozart motet, Riccardo Muti sent a resounding message Sunday night, that live classical music has returned to the Italian stage after the coronavirus lockdown. A full summer festival program is planned in his adopted home of Ravenna, even as the musical outlook remains grim in the United States, where he also conducts the Chicag...

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DURING THE SIXTH CENTURY, THE city of Ravenna was one of the most important cities of the Byzantine Empire. Today, many of the great buildings erected during that golden age are still standing. Just outside Ravenna, the hamlet of Classe was once the home port of the Roman fleet in the Adriatic Sea. The Basilica of Sant’Apollinare in Classe was buil...

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This unique Byzantine monument, Basilica of Sant’ Apollinare in Classe is not included in the standard tourist itinerary. When UNESCO inscribed eight Ravenna sites on the World Heritage List, it cited this basilica as “an outstanding example of the early Christian basilica in its purity and simplicity of its design and use of space and in the sumpt...

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Mosaics are amazing in Ravenna. Women and their influence are scenes in the Byzantine mosaics. “Women never betrayed their identity as guardians of life, because none of them has been an accomplice to the crucifixion of Jesus (not even Pilate’s wife),” explained Lorenzo Ghizzoni, Archbishop of Ravenna-Cervia. “They had the courage to remain at the...

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Strange to say, but even cities can give you quite romantic landscapes during the autumn. The wind lashing against the trees in the parks, the wide alleys turning into huge colourful carpets… In the historical centres, men and women of all ages go for a long stroll, seizing the warmth of the last rays of sun, while groups of children run after each...

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MUCH OF RAVENNA seems perpetually soaked in the colors of autumn. Amid alleys crammed with gelato shops, cafés, and souvenir stores, fifth- and sixth-century churches, mausoleums, and baptisteries stand out with their ochre and fawn facades. But the real surprise lies inside their walls and domes, where millions of sparkling mosaic tiles reveal st...

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Seven hundred years on, the question of where Dante’s remains should be kept remains divisive and one more cause for polemica (controversy). The dispute started after La Repubblica, Italy’s major daily, published an article hinting at ongoing negotiations, happening ‘behind the scenes,’ between the city administrations of Ravenna and Florence, to t...

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If you’ve ever experienced the excitement and the medieval drama and magnificence of the palios of Italy, and for those who haven’t yet experienced the exquisite display of pageantry, the excitement and merriment of medieval and renaissance Italy is coming to you. Direct from Italy, the internationally renowned and award winning GRUPPO SBANDIERATOR...

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The Mausoleum of Galla Placidia sits in the courtyard of Ravenna’s magnificent 6th-century Basilica of San Vitale, but its connection to the basilica is unclear. Its construction dates to sometime in the 5th century, during the last years of the Western Roman Empire. The signature motif of its breathtaking mosaics, described by UNESCO as “among the...

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The year 2019 sees the ongoing celebration of the 200th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the then young democracy of the United States and the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. The events, which last throughout the year, are organized by various public and private entities under the patronage of the American Consulate in Florence. It's just a coin...

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