Ravenna to Florence

About 1.5 hour train with change in Bologna
Very easy, inexpensive

About a 2 hour drive-private driver probably close to 300 euros
You can check
daytrip.com

Don’t see why you’d take 3-5 days to get to Florence

Spend a night or 2 in Ravenna to see the mosaics
Then a night or 2 in Bologna

Florence should get 2-3 nights

Hi - I'm a little confused (but that's normal; HA!)
Did you mean that you have 3-5 days including your stay in Florence, or just getting TO Florence?

Editing to add: YES, as suggested above I'd take some time for Ravenna itself to see the UNESCO World Heritage-listed mosaics. I've not gotten to do that yet and am dying to see them!!!

We don't have a set return to US date so we can take our time traveling to Florence. A stop in Bologna sounds interesting. This is our first trip to Europe so the planning is somewhat daunting. Appreciative of any insight so thank you.

How is Bologna different than perhaps routing to Sienna instead? Has anyone spent time in both areas?

You’d have to go thru Florence to get to Siena (note spelling)
Siena is a hilltown in Tuscan-very different look and feel from Bologna
Both medieval

Siena is an easy day trip from Florence

We have visited all the cities mentioned. Bologna could be a nice choice. It is often described as the culinary capital of Italy. It also has the advantage of several easy day trips should you choose…Ferrara, Modena, and Parma are literally just minutes away. I would definitely spend time in Ravenna to see the remarkable mosaics. We spent a few nights in the wonderful Albergo Capello in Ravenna….helpful, friendly staff and a gigantic beautiful room. Breakfast was included and a restaurant adjoins the hotel. They treated us with unsurpassed kindness and earned special memory status. Florence is one of the jewels of Italy so I wouldn’t cut too much time from a stay there. Siena is easily and conveniently visited from Florence by a quick bus. To my mind it is a medieval city in contrast to Renaissance Florence but it doesn’t have the allure of treasures to be found in Florence so a nice day trip if time is limited. YMMV.

Have a great trip, enjoy your cruise and beautiful Italy. Safe travels.

Thanks everyone so very much. Your information has been very helpful.

A good guide book will help you decide where to visit

You can read about all but Bologna here:
https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/italy

RS doesn’t include Bologna in his books etc so you will have to research it elsewhere

There is info here on forum about Bologna
Forum search:
https://search.ricksteves.com/?button=&date_range=2y&filter=Travel+Forum&query=Bologna+

Ohhh thanks Christine. Very helpful.

We just traveled from Ravenna to Florence by train last week. We used RailEurope to look at our options in terms of schedule. It's an easy website to use and you can purchase tickets there. We took a regionale train from Ravenna to Bologna Centrale station for 8 euro per person in about an hour (different trains on this route have different number of stops), then took the Frecciarosa from Bologna Centrale to Firenze (Florence) S. M. Novella station for 45 euro each in business class about 40 minutes. The business class was a lark just to see what it was like; regular fares are less expensive. There was no direct, fast train service from Ravenna to Florence that I could see.

I found this website very helpful in terms of understanding train ticket buying: https://www.seat61.com/train-travel-in-italy.htm.

We rode 5 trains on our trip on 3 different days. All but one ran about 15 minutes late, including the fast Frecciarosa train. I'd allow extra time for navigating larger stations and for the train running late.

BTW Ravenna's UNESCO sights are amazing. The central historic area is small and easy to navigate with good shopping and restaurants. We used a local guide, Silvia Giogoli, for a private tour that helped us understand the history and the meaning of symbols used in the mosaics. Her info is easy to find via Google. We had 1.5 days/2 nights in Ravenna which allowed us to slow down and enjoy. One organized day would probably be enough to see the major sights.

On the same trip we spent 2.5 days/3 nights in Bologna. I agree with above comments that for most people Florence deserves more time than Bologna, although it depends on your interests. It seems Florence has more 'A List' attractions whereas Bologna has a broader collection of less famous but still quite interesting things to do. 1-2 days in Bologna would be adequate to see the major sights IMO. Bologna was designated in 2006 as a creative City of Music by UNESCO. Some excellent music-related experiences in Bologna would be the Museo Internazionale e Biblioteca della Musica, and the San Colombano - Tagliavini Collection. We enjoyed the Quadrilatero area which is just off the main piazza. It has some absolutely beautiful traditional food shops.

OH my goodness THANK YOU EVERYONE! We now have a travel agent and your information is helping in our planning with her. We are so grateful to each of you.