Ravenna City Tour | The City of Silence

Ravenna city tour focuses on the area of San Francesco’s Square and the Zone of Silence dedicated to the great poet, Dante Alighieri. The silence has a dual significance: it is also an attribute to the city which, between ‘800 and ‘900, lived a period of isolation from external connections and cultural interests. Visiting the city, Oscar Wilde described Ravenna as desert-asleep-silent, and before him, Henry James pictured it as a melancholy-alone-sleepy town, up until the final characterization of the“City of Silence” by Gabriele d’Annunzio, in his Electra’s poems.

The medieval aspect of the area started to change from the twenties of 1900: the construction of Hotel Byron, the most luxurious of the city, which before was an aristocratic residence. Now, at its place, the façade of the Palace of Province hides the architectonical treasure of the Vertical Garden, the panoramic roof, and the
subterranean crypt. The restoring of that time brought the Saint Francesco’s Basilica to its original elegance and sobriety, while also today its crypt leaves us stupefied, submerged by water and occupied by a group of goldfishes. Our last stop will be Dante’s Tomb.