Ravenna Historic Downtown Self Guided Audio Walking Tour

Colonna di Sant'Apollinare honors the city’s dedication to its first bishop and patron saint, Saint Apollinaris. It's a great place to explore.

The tour starts outside the Basilica di San Giovanni Evangelista at the gate. You'll hear it's history and story then be guided step by step through Ravenna.

Palazzo di Teodorico in Ravenna is a small but fascinating early-medieval structure, long thought to be King Theodoric’s residence but now understood as a 7th–8th century gatehouse for the imperial palace complex. Its façade with arches and niche fronts Via di Roma near Sant’Apollinare Nuovo, and inside you can see reused Roman and Byzantine elements plus mosaics from the underlying late‑antique palace. Excavations revealed earlier Roman villas and an imperial residence later remodeled in Theodoric’s time, so the site condenses several centuries of Ravenna’s political and artistic history.

The legend of the Greek Madonna centers on a marble bas-relief of the Virgin Mary, believed to be Byzantine in origin. You'll hear that hear.

Not to miss spot. The Basilica di San Francesco dates back to the mid-5th century, when it was originally known as the Chiesa degli Apostoli, an early Christian sanctuary later rededicated to Saint Peter.

Yes, this is Dante’s Tomb. Now, why is Dante important? Dante Alighieri is important because his epic poem The Divine Comedy written circa 1308 1321 is considered a masterpiece of world literature and the cornerstone of the Italian language.

er, patriot, and revolutionary leader of the 19th-century Risorgimento, the movement that unified Italy from separate states into a single nation.