Ravenna's eight UNESCO World Heritage monuments are the main draw. The mosaics in the Basilica of San Vitale and the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia are among the finest in the world — shimmering gold and blue compositions that have survived largely intact since the 5th and 6th centuries. The Mausoleum of Theodoric, built entirely of Istrian stone and capped by a single 230-ton monolith, is striking in a completely different way.
The Baptistery of Neon and the smaller Arian Baptistry provide contrasting perspectives on early Christian art — the orthodox and the heretical — while the National Museum, housed in the ex-Benedictine Monastery next to San Vitale, has an excellent collection of ivories, textiles, and archaeological fragments.
Dante's tomb, a small neoclassical temple in the centre of town, marks where the poet was buried after dying in Ravenna in 1321. Next to it, the Basilica of San Francesco contains one of Ravenna's strangest sights: a flooded crypt where goldfish now swim over ancient mosaic floors.