Ravenna

You can get to all the sites in one day. There's bus service to the one that's just a bit out of town. Just be sure you get on the bus going in the correct direction.

You may well spend more time at each site than I did, and the historic center is beautiful, so you'll need time for walking around. Still, I think 2 nignts will be OK if you don't have a lot of days at your disposal.

I went to all the mosaic sights except the one just outside town in one day. I spent a decent but not long amount of time at each sight and didn't feel rushed. Ravenna is compact, so it doesn't take a lot of time to get between the sights in town.

Here's what we did in 3 full days in Ravenna, but we were there in December and had all the places almost all to ourselves. There's not a thing on this list I would skip. Some are conveniently bunched together. Be sure to take some good binoculars.

Arian Baptistery

Piazza del Popolo's surrounding buildings

Basilica di San Francesco (quick visit)

Museo Nazionale (closed Monday)(close to next four places)

Basilica di San Vitale

Mausoleo di Galla Placidia

Domus dei Tappeti di Pietra (+ Rasponi Crypt w. combo ticket) (closed Monday)

Basilica di Sant'Apollinare in Classe (take bus to it)

Basilica di Sant'Apollinare Nuovo (near train & bus station)

Museo Arcivescovile (near the next two places)

Neonian Baptistery

Duomo (quick look at floor)

Nancy,
That’s a great list. Appreciate the time you took to write that up. Headed back to Ravenna this fall.
ttmom

I love lists!

Our favorite place that we ate at in Ravenna was a hole-in-the-wall piadina eatery called Piadina Cupido --- we loved both the cheese and greens piadina and the "dessert" piadina with fig jam. Via Cavour, 43/a --- It's in a sort of little shopping arcade.

Here are the other places we had on our well-researched restaurant list, but I don't remember which ones we actually ate at.

La Piada di Ale
Trattoria la Rustica
La Trattoria al Cerchio
Osteria Piattoforte
Osteria del Tempo Perso

Thanks for everyone's replies!

I spent four nights in Ravenna in 2015. I think 2 would be enough for what you want to do. Here's another restaurant rec: Ca' de Ven, at http://www.cadeven.it/

Hi, I’ll be in Ravenna for the first time late Summer and am staying two nights. Since you’re an art addict, Ravenna has their Ravenna Bella di Sera and Mosaico di Notte for more options in the evening to see and hear more art! Check out your planned dates on their Ravenna Tourism site. I’ll be there on one of the Friday evenings when they’re offering tours of the mosaics at night.

We spent 3 enjoyable nights in Ravenna last summer. Yes, we could have probably done it in 2 nights, but 3 nights allowed us to leisurely visit the mosaic sites as well as appreciate the city. Another plus was the day we were visiting Basillica di San Vitale, we received a little piece of paper inviting us back in the evening for a concert!

We found Ravenna to have reasonably priced lodging and great food! We had a really fun dinner at Al Rustichello: The owner suggested the menu, served us delicious food with house wine on ice and even treated us to an after dinner grappa!