Gone is the time of Instagrammable locations, welcome the era of putting sustainability first. Keep reading to find out more about 7 sustainable experiences in Ravenna – an Italian city you may not know yet.
“We want Ravenna to be a city that is shared with joy by everyone, tourists and locals.”
The second half of 2025 will be remembered (amongst other things) for the increasing number of overtourism marches, when locals in places as far afield as Tokyo and Barcelona took to the streets to protest against the phenomenon that has come to define the post-pandemic travel era, pricing locals out of their homes and turning historic centres into amusement parks.
Many cities are reacting with a slew of bans and increased regulations, others like Venice have gone as far afield as charging an entrance fee for day-trippers (didn’t I just say “amusement parks”?)
Meanwhile, the city of Ravenna is taking a radical approach – creating a sustainable tourism model that goes beyond the usual concepts like “take the train” and “reduce single-use plastic”. With increasing tourist numbers in recent years, set to grow even further as Ravenna’s port will expand capacity over the next years, the city is putting happiness and inclusivity at the forefront of its tourism strategy – for both locals and tourists.
Ravenna’s Sustainable Tourism Future
This sustainable tourism model will be developed over the next two years (2026/2027), and will culminate with the launch of Footprints, a game platform rewarding tourists for sustainable experiences and behaviours.
The Footprints platform is currently a work in progress and will be launched in beta model during the spring/summer of 2026, when 50 people from all walks of life will be invited to Ravenna to test it and try out some sustainable experiences. BTW, that could be you, selections are open until November 16th! Find more info and apply here.
The overall aim of the project is combining sustainability and authenticity, encouraging eco-friendly behaviours and offering a tourist experience away from the usual “things to do”, promoting lesser-known sights and activities.
We spent a weekend in Ravenna trying out some of the experiences that will form the backbone of Footprints – sustainable experiences in and out of the city, combining culture, history and nature, showcasing Ravenna and its many beautiful faces. Let’s dive right in!
Sustainable Ravenna – 7 Experiences
1) Mosaics by Night
Sustainable because… extending opening hours is a good way to prevent overcrowding.
Ravenna’s main calling card are its stunning UNESCO-listed Byzantine mosaics. The city was capital of the Western Roman Empire between 402 and 476, a time when mosaics were the preferred art form to illustrate early Christian iconography in churches, baptistries and mausoleums.
I have visited Ravenna several times before, and written a longer guide about Ravenna’s mosaics – both Byzantine and modern.
So, if mosaics are the big-ticket attraction of the city, attracting crowds of audioguide-toting tourists each day, how can they become a sustainable experience? Ravenna’s answer was extended opening hours, and organizing guided tours for small groups, led by an expert historian.
Our visit started with the Galla Placidia Mausoleum, home to some of the oldest mosaics in Ravenna. The main feature is the ceiling, decorated with 567 golden stars set around the image of a cross, a sight that has inspired countless travellers over its 1500 years of life.
Then we headed to San Vitale, the larger basilica separated from the Mausoleum by a cobblestoned road. There, we saw “the image that is in all art history books” (in the words of our guide) – the mosaic above the altar depicting Christ the Redeemer, with two angels, San Vitale and a bishop holding a model of the church.
Having visited San Vitale during the day before, when it’s filled to the brim with tour groups, I appreciated the peace of this after-hour visit, allowing visitors to take their time and absorb some of this timeless magic, and understand the symbols and hidden messages behind the work of nameless ancient artists.
2) Mosaic Workshop
Sustainable because… it’s a slow experience that allows visitors to get to know an ancient art form.
Whenever I visit ancient churches or temples, I always spare a thought for all those who painstakingly worked for decades to build and decorate these marvels, probably aware that they would never see them complete.
Imagine being a mosaic artist in Ravenna in the 5th century, cutting tiny tesserae by hand and placing them side by side to create a wonderland of angels and saints, Bible and gospel scenes, nature and animals. Imagine working meters above the ground, with questionable safety equipment, slowly seeing your visions emerge, one tessera after the other.
In Ravenna, you have the chance to try out this experience with a mosaic workshop. The city is still the heart of Italy’s mosaic industry, and there are several studios and art schools offering visitors the chance to try out this art form. Most offer what is known as the “direct Ravenna method”, placing glass tesserae directly on the surface where the mosaic will be shown.
Our workshop was held at the MAR, Ravenna’s art museum, and we all attempted to recreate “Le Coq Bleu”, centrepiece of the Chagall exhibition being held at the time of out visit.
Even if you are not an artistic person (and I certainly am not one), I really recommend joining a museum workshop. It’s a slow, meditative experience, which allows you to get a glimpse into this technique and the life of a mosaicist, while taking home a truly unique souvenir.
3) Silent Play
Sustainable because… it’s an immersive experience that guides visitors through lesser-known sites in the city.
After mosaics, visiting Dante’s tomb is Ravenna’s other main “thing to do”. After the poet was exiled from his native Florence, he wandered from court to court and finally sought refuge in Ravenna, where he died.
A tour of luoghi danteschi – places and sights with relations to Dante’s life – is a popular activity. To avoid the usual follow-the-guide experience, Ravenna launched Silent Play – A Tale of Two Poets, an immersive audio tour.
Visitors receive high-quality headphones (no plastic buds!), playing a recording with the voice of an actor impersonating Dante. Following the recording, visitors will be taken through a series of places like the Classense Library, located in a former Cistercian abbey and housing an important collection of Dante’s works, and the San Francesco basilica with its flooded crypt, where public readings of the Divine Comedy take place each year.
The Dante part of the tour ends in front of the poet’s tomb, and then you’ll hear the voice of another actor impersonating Byron, the second of the “Two Poets” the tour is dedicated to. Byron was also captivated by Ravenna and spent a number of years in the city, before dying suddenly at age 36. If you want to know more about Byron, keep reading – he is the protagonist of the next experience!
4) Byron Museum Interactive Experiences
Sustainable because… the interactive experiences attract more people to this recently-opened museum.
The Silent Play tour ends in front of Palazzo Guiccioli, home of Count Alessandro Guiccioli and his wife Teresa – who also happened to be Byron’s lover. Byron also lived in the Palazzo for a few years, as a guest of the couple. It is there that Byron penned some of his most famous works, while living his intense affair with Teresa.
The Palazzo includes a stunning sequence of lavishly-decorated rooms, with exhibits related to Byron’s life in Ravenna – original manuscripts and letters to Teresa, but also locks of his and her hair, and even some shards of the poet’s sunburnt skin (after a three-hour swim in Greece, apparently).
So far it sounds just like any other museum, right? Well, to make it more interesting and engaging, every room houses a different multimedia installation. For example, place a picture into a frame, and a video about Byron’s travels will play, or bang your fist on a table to hear about the poet’s fateful journey to Greece.
The second floor of the museum is dedicated to the Risorgimento, Italy’s 19th century unification movement. Byron was also involved in it due to his connection with the Carbonari, a secret society active in the movement. The entire Risorgimento section of the museum has similar multimedia installations, making visits fun and enjoyable.
5) Boscoforte Bike Tour
Sustainable because… bike and nature, what else?
Part of the Footprint project aims to take tourists away from the historic centre and towards the outskirts of the city, home to wetlands and the Adriatic coast.
Ravenna lays very close to the Po Delta and the Comacchio valleys, an area where land and water blend onto each other, birdlife is plentiful and visitors are very few. The area is completely flat, making it ideal to explore by bike.
The 30 km Argine degli Angeli route is perhaps the best known and most visited, so we were taken to explore Boscoforte, a 6 km dune peninsula surrounded by wetlands and home to some impressive wildlife. Boscoforte is private property and access is limited – a guided tour by foot or bike is the only way to visit.
We started crossing the Reno river on a small ferry, and cycled up the riverbank to a lagoon dotted with gangly pink-hued silhouettes. The wetlands are one of Italy’s largest flamingo colony, stopping to nest between May and October before flying off to the warmer climates of Africa.
This is not all – Boscoforte is a birdwatcher’s paradise, with species like cormorants, avocets, shelducks, Eurasian spoonbills, western marsh harriers, warblers and reedlings frequently spotted. There’s also a colony of approximately 50 wild horses – they are the descendants of Camargue horses imported in the 1970s, now living free between reeds and wetlands.
6) CESTHA Turtle Rescue
Sustainable because… visiting is a great way to learn about the marine environment and conservation challenges.
If you’re a nature person with a keen interest in conservation, there’s another place you should really visit in Marina di Ravenna – CESTHA, a non-profit environmental organization housed in Marina di Ravenna’s harbour, the main rehabilitation and treatment center for sea turtles in the region.
Sea turtles and other marine creatures like rays and small sharks often get caught in the nets of trawler boats or get injured by propellers, suffering wounds and damage to their internal organs. CESTHA welcomes turtles from all over the northern Adriatic coast, nursing them back to health in their premises, before releasing them back into the wild.
We were welcomed by Silvia, one of the resident marine biologists, who showed us some of the turtles currently being looked after – from 50 year-old, 80 kg behemots to tiny babies, all housed in individual vats until they are well enough to be returned to their habitat.
CESTHA doesn’t have regular opening hours, but organizes “happy hour” guided tours on summer evenings, during the turtles’ feeding time. It’s also possible to join a release – naturally, there’s no set date or time for those, so we recommend getting in touch with CESTHA to see what’s on at the time of your visit.
We warmly recommend visiting – not only are the turtles extremely cute and guaranteed to put a smile on your face, the center is also constantly underfunded so income from all visits greatly helps conservation efforts.
7) Birdwatching at Sant’Apollinare in Classe
Sustainable because… you’ll find out about nature in the past and present, while sitting comfortably in one of the most beautiful basilicas in the world.
When we were invited to go “birdwatching” at the Sant’Apollinare Basilica in nearby Classe, we didn’t quite know what to expect. Would we climb the belltower to look out onto the surrounding wetlands? Is there a kind of secret platform where you can see some nesting sites?
As it turned out, none of the above! Our birdwatching tour of Sant’Apollinare in Classe took place entirely indoors, as the birds we would learn about were those depicted in the monumental apse mosaic of the Basilica. However, as with all ‘proper’ birdwatching tours, we were given a pair of binoculars to find them easily.
Classe was instrumental to Ravenna’s rise as capital of the Western Roman empire. The city is now located 10 km inland, but in Roman times it was the location of a busy port, connected to Ravenna by a network of waterways.
All that remains of Classe’s former grandeur is the Basilica of Sant’Apollinare, with a famous mosaic depicting the eponymous Saint below a cross, surrounded by a nature scene and a golden sky.
Most of the trees and birds in the mosaic are still present in Ravenna to this day, and some have a meaning in early Christian iconography. For instance, peacocks were said to symbolize God, while partridges had a negative meaning, as they were related to the capital sin of lust.
However, in mosaic form it’s very hard to distinguish partridges from quails – the latter had a positive connotation, as Moses received manna and quails during the escape from Egypt. For this reason, the quail is depicted next to Sant’Apollinare at the centre of the mosaic.
Two other interesting birds can be spotted – the ringed parakeet, symbol of the Immaculate conception as its call sounds like “AVE”, and the Western swamphen with its long red legs, now no longer found in Ravenna, depicted to represent chastity.
There are many more birds to find and stories to hear, but I can’t spoil them all – I’d like to invite you to Ravenna to hear for yourself, to support the journey towards sustainability of this remarkable town.
Our trip was supported by Ravenna Incoming as part of the Footprint project. Thanks for the wonderful experience!