Rome and Ravenna

Google on "youtube khan academy ravenna" and watch these very interesting videos about some of the many mosaics in Ravenna --- I learned a lot from them (and from all the Khan Academy art history videos even though the narrators are a teensy bit annoying.)

Remember to take binoculars!

Are you asking for a person to be your guide? If so, I can recommend Cinzia. She took me on a private tour to the major mosaic sites in April 2015. Here's a link to info about her (Her name is pronounced TSHEEN-tsyah.)

Thanks for the suggestions. I should have written "guidebook," but the idea of a personal guide is also intriguing.

We did Ravenna easily on our own with a local guide/photo book we purchased in the city.

A guide might be of some added value, but I would not pay much for that service.

I spent 2 nights and one full day in Ravenna in June this year. I found most of my info online. You can find much more than these examples by Googling Ravenna.

This is a decent introduction from the UK.

I stayed at the B&B Corso Diaz which I booked through Booking.com, but if I did it again, I'd go direct to them. Where I stayed is a short walk from the train station, but they have 2 locations. You can click through to the other location from the link provided.

I was able to see everything I wanted to see in one day by walking, but I didn't go to the far out places. I did the circuit somewhat backwards, starting with Sant' Apollinare where I got my ticket for everything. The link has a map and includes the locations where you can buy tickets.

Sant' Apollinare is my favorite of the monuments I saw. Perhaps it was because I was there early in the morning on a weekday, but it was not at all crowded. There were chairs to sit in while gawking. And there was some restoration going on in one of the side chapels. I asked for permission to take pictures of the work and it was readily given.

Later I was back in Ravenna on the RS Village Italy tour. We spent a couple of hours seeing only the Basilica di San Vitale and Mausoleo di Galla Placidia. I thought the local guide, whose name I don't remember, was not the greatest. I learned much more from our RS VI guide. She recommended this book for learning about the mosaics, including their iconography and symbolism: Byzantium: from Antiquity to the Renaissance, by Thomas Mathews.

Thanks, everyone, for the ideas about learning more about Ravenna, and the B&B tip, too!