Ravenna, Italy - Part 2

Mosaic is a style of artwork where images are created by assembling pieces of coloured glass or stone. In our previous visit to Jordan, we had visited a mosaic factory and witnessed the labour intensive task of individually cutting and gluing pieces of material to create beautiful masterpieces. Our visit to Ravenna was driven by a desire to see the UNESCO listed Byzantine era mosaics. For conservation reasons, we were not allowed to photograph some artworks, but the memories of their colour, scale and beauty will stay with us for ever.

Ravenna, Italy - Part 1

Ravenna is a city in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. It is a city perfect for history-culture nerds like ourselves. Ravenna's claim to fame sits with its past life as the capital city of the Western Roman Empire, capital of the Kingdom of the Ostrogoths; then part of the Byzantine Empire and Kingdom of the Lombards.
Like many other cities that have been swapped over by different ruling cultures, the city is rich in monuments.For its size, it has an amazing 8 UNESCO listed sites - of which we managed to see 7 in a single day.