Perugia

I would hands down say Ravenna. We spent two nights there enjoying the incredible mosaics in so many different churches and baptisteries. The Rocco (fort) and Theodoric's Mausoleum were extremely interesting too. The art museum in Perugia is good, but I didn't much like the town. Obviously, others will disagree.

I haven't been to Ravenna but my husband and I planned for 3 nights in Perugia. We decided that 2 nights was enough and left one day earlier than planned. I agree with Katherine - if it were me, I'd chose Ravenna.

It would be helpful if you included what you enjoy doing. Ravenna is a better choice if you enjoy Christian mosaics, of course.

Thanks for the messages about Perugia. In answer to your question Michael as to what we like to do, in no particular order: galleries and museums (until we hit overload), cultural, history, meeting the locals and other travellers, the food, soaking up the atmosphere, discovery on walks (typically we do about 10kms per day). This trip: the Lakes Maggiore), Florence, Ferrara, Lucca, Tuscany by car ending in Orvieto (prob about 12 days in all), Rome and then home again from Milan. Given what Katherine and others have said, Perugia is probably going to be dropped with Ravenna replacing it. I am only booking hotels in the bigger towns, the others we'll leave to chance. 5 weeks.