Ravenna & Parma: Byzantine Mosaics & Renaissance Courts

Collectively designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the magnificent Byzantine mosaics in the early Christian churches of Ravenna are the finest to be found outside Istanbul.  Our visits here trace the development of style in the architecture and in the mosaics in the Basilica of San Vitale, the Mausoleums of Theodoric and Galla Placidia, the Neonian Baptistery, Sant'Apollinare Nuovo and Sant'Apollinare in Classe.  We also spend a day visiting the late 15th-century Palazzo Ducale, one of the finest Renaissance ducal palaces in Italy, and the Oratory of San Giovanni in Urbino, as well as the early Renaissance Tempio Malatestiano in Rimini.

Moving to Parma, visiting important sights in Cesena and Bologna en-route, our focus alters.  During our stay here we explore not only Parma itself, including its Duomo and Baptistery, Camera di San Paolo and Galleria Nazionale housed in the Palazzo Pilotta, but we also venture to some of the region's most architecturally and artistically important cities during the Renaissance.  In Mantua our visits include the Palazzo Ducale and the renowned Camera degli Sposi.  We explore the Palazzo Farnese and the Collegio Alberoni in Piacenza, whilst in Cremona we include the Church of Sant'Agostino with its fine frescoes.  Finally, we visit the Palazzo del Principe in Sabbioneta, and the Duomo and Galleria Estense in Modena at the end of a remarkable journey.

Day 1: Friday, 7th September

London / Bologna / Ravenna

Depart London Gatwick on a British Airways morning flight to Bologna Airport.  Transfer to lunch.

Lunch at a local restaurant.  Continue to Ravenna and check in at the NH Hotel Ravenna, situated in the heart of the historic centre, where three nights are spent.  Visit the Mausoleum of Theodoric, erected by King Theodoric (493-526) around 520 and built of huge blocks of freestone assembled without mortar.  The two-storey building is covered by a remarkable monolithic dome in Istrian stone.  Orientation walk in the city.  Drinks and dinner at the hotel.

Day 2: Saturday, 8th September

Ravenna

Visits in the town of Ravenna starting with San Vitale.  Consecrated in 547, this octagonal church is the most precious example of Byzantine art extant in Western Europe.  The impressive interior is famous for its decorations in marble and mosaics.  Continue to the Tomb of Galla Placidia is a small cruciform building erected by the sister of Roman Emperor Honorius towards the middle of the 5th century.  The interior, lit by alabaster windows, is famous for its magnificent mosaics, predominantly blue, especially interesting for the classical character of the figures and for their excellent state of preservation.  Continue to the Neonian Baptistery, a remarkable building which was converted from a Roman bathhouse.  The beautiful interior is entirely decorated with mosaics and sculptural details which blend with the architectural forms.  Also visit the Museo Arcivescovile (Archbishop’s Palace museum) where the Sala Lapidaria contains fragments and mosaics from the original cathedral and from San Vitale as well as other 6th-century religious artefacts including the famous ivory Throne of Maximian, an Alexandrine work of the 6th century, carved with the story of Joseph, the Life of Christ, and figures of St. John the Baptist and the Evangelists.

Lunch at Ristorante Bella Venezia.  Visit Sant’Apollinare Nuovo, one of the finest of all the churches in Ravenna.  It was built by Theodoric in the early 6th century and the mosaics, in two magnificent bands along the nave walls, are of the same date.  Leave by coach for Sant’Apollinare in Classe, built for Bishop Ursicinus by Julianus Argentarius in 535-38 and consecrated by Archbishop Maximian in 549.  The campanile is the tallest and loveliest in Ravenna and the 6th and 7th century mosaics in the apse are very interesting.  Dinner at Ristorante Cappello.

Day 3: Sunday, 9th September

Ravenna, Urbino & Rimini

Leave by coach for Urbino.  Visit the Palazzo Ducale, one of the finest Renaissance ducal palaces in Italy, dating from the second half of the 15th century.  It houses a good collection of paintings which include the controversial Madonna of Senigallia possibly by Piero della Francesca.  Continue to the small 14th-century Oratory of San Giovanni Battista which has a beautiful wooden-covered nave and is decorated with a cycle of frescoes by Jacopo and Lorenzo Salimbeni (1416) which depict the life of St. John the Baptist as well as the Crucifixion.

Lunch at Ristorante Vecchia Urbino.  Continue to Rimini and visit the Tempio Malatestiano, one of the most magnificent creations of the early Renaissance.  The church, which was rebuilt after the severe damage of the War, dates back to the 13th century but was almost immediately renovated between 1447 and 1460.  The beautiful façade, inspired by the triumphal arch form of Rome, is by Leon Battista Alberti.  Return to Ravenna and dinner under own arrangements.

Day 4: Monday, 10th September

Ravenna / Casena / Bologna / Parma

Leave (with luggage) for Cesena.  Visit the Biblioteca Malatestiana, one of the greatest humanist libraries, it was completed by Matteo Nuti in 1454 for Novello Malatesta and remains virtually unchanged since its founding.  In the Biblioteca Piana there are over 5000 volumes and 60 codex.  The Biblioteca Malatestiana has over 300 invaluable manuscripts in Latin, Greek and Hebrew.

Drinks and lunch privately in Palazzo Chiaramonti (subject to confirmation).  Continue to Bologna and visit the Basilica of San Petronio.  The original conception of a vast basilica was never completed.  Only six bays of the nave were built and the lower part of the façade which is covered in marble. The main entrance was planned by Jacopo della Quercia from 1425-38.  Also visit the Basilica of Santo Stefano which is a picturesque group of buildings dedicated as a whole to St. Stephen the Martyr, including the oldest ecclesiastical building in Bologna.  Three churches are united in the façade facing the piazza: Santi Pietro e Paolo, San Sepolcro, and the Croscifisso, with a 12th century pulpit on its front.  Continue to the Hotel Stendhal where five nights are spent.  Situated in the historic city centre, the tranquil, tasteful hotel has stylish rooms, ranging in decor from Louis XV, reflecting the first reign of Don Filippo of Borbone, to Louix XVI and a newly refurbished restaurant, La Pilotta.  Dinner at the hotel.

Day 5: Tuesday, 11th September

Parma

Morning tour of Parma starting at the Duomo which is in fact the third building on this site; the first burnt down in 1058 and the second was destroyed by an earthquake in 1117.  The present church is in the Lombard-Romanesque style in unfaced brick and was completed in the 12th century.  Next door is the Baptistery which was begun in 1196 and has walls faced with marble, which are 9 feet thick.  It is a graceful Romanesque building ascribed to the local sculptor Antelami.  The interior forms a polygon of 16 sides with galleries and niches similar to the exterior.  The niches and dome are frescoed with scenes from the Life of Christ and the Golden Legend dating from the 13th century.  Continue to the Camera del Correggio, in the former Convent of San Paolo, which was the refectory of the abbess.  Giovanna Piacenza, abbess in 1518, commissioned Correggio to decorate it with mythological scenes.  Also see the Palazzo Pilotta built for the Arnese family between 1583 and 1622 but left unfinished.  It now houses, on the upper floors, the National Gallery containing Correggio’s masterpieces and works by Parmigianino.  Also inside the palace is the Teatro Farnese, built of wood by Aleotti in 1618-28, modelled on the Teatro Olimpico at Vicenza.  It was almost entirely destroyed in the War but has been reconstructed.

Lunch at Ristorante La Greppia.  Afternoon at leisure.  Dinner under own arrangements.

Day 6: Wednesday, 12th September

Parma & Mantua

Leave for Mantua for visits starting with the Palazzo Ducale, a vast fortress palace which was the city dwelling of the Gonzagas.  The whole complex has over 450 rooms; four contain the oldest known set of tapestries made after the Raphael cartoons, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum.  There are also the apartments of the dwarfs and the Camera degli Sposi with frescoes by Mantegna of the scenes from the lives of the Gonzagas.  Continue to the Basilica of Sant’Andrea designed by Leon Battista Alberti, commissioned by Ludovico Gonzaga, begun in 1472 on the site of a smaller church.  The huge barrel-vault over the long nave, the tall pedestals of the piers and the impressive façade are based on the grand lines of Roman antiquity thus making this one of the most important of all 15th century Italian churches.  The dome was designed by Juvarra and finished in 1763.  Andrea Mantegna is buried in the church and there are tombs and frescoes by Giulio Romano.  Some free time in Piazza delle Erbe and the surrounding area.

Lunch at Ristorante Aquila Nigra.  Afternoon visit to Palazzo Tè built in 1535 by Giulio Romano as a summer villa for the Gonzagas on an island site outside the city wall.  The land had provided pasturing and stabling for centuries for the famous Gonzaga stud.  The name of the palazzo derives from the suburb of Tieto.  The exterior is rusticated and the interior is remarkably frescoed with the Giant’s Room, Duke Federico II’s favourite horses, and classical stories of Phaeton and Psyche.  Return to Parma and dinner under own arrangements.

Day 7: Thursday, 13th September

Parma, Piacenza & Cremona

Leave by coach for Piacenza.  Here visit the Cathedral, built from 1122 to 1233, one of the most valuable examples of a Romanesque cathedral in northern Italy with a façade of Veronese pink marble.  It has noteworthy frescoes, from the 14th-16th centuries by Camillo Procaccini and Ludovico Carracci, while those of the dome are by Morazzone and Guercino.  Also visit the Palazzo Farnese built on the banks of the River Po in 1568 by Ottavio Farnese and his wife, Margaret of Austria.  Continue to the Collegio Alberoni, named after Cardinal Alberoni, which contains a library, an observatory, tapestries and a fine collection of paintings including Ecce Homo by Antonello da Messina.

Lunch at a local restaurant.  Leave by coach for Cremona and visit the Cathedral originally built in 1107 in Romanesque style, later restored and extended with Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque elements.  The main façade, together with the annexed Baptistery, is one of the most important monuments of Romanesque art in Europe.  Also see the Stradivarius Museum, housed in the Palazzo del Comune, which contains three violins made by Stradivarius and the Amati family and the Church of Sant’Agostino with the frescoes of Francesco Sforza and his wife.  Return to Parma and dinner under own arrangements.

Day 8: Friday, 14th September

Parma & Sabbioneta

Further visits in Parma to include the Church of the Madonna della Steccata which dates from the 16th century and was designed by the architects Bernardino and Zaccagni.  It contains fine frescoes by Parmigianino representing the Foolish and the Wise Virgins, Adam and Eve, and Moses and Aaron.  Also visit the Benedictine abbey church of San Giovanni Evangelista (St. John the Evangelist), which was originally constructed in the 10th century, but had to be rebuilt in 1498 and 1510 after a fire.  Its dome has a fresco of the Vision of St. John the Evangelist by Correggio.  Also visit the monastic cloisters and the ancient Benedictine pharmacy.  Continue to the Glauco Lombardi Museum which exhibits a prestigious collection of art and historical items relating to Maria Luigia of Habsburg and her first husband Napoleon Bonaparte.

Lunch under own arrangements.  Leave for Sabbioneta and visit the Palazzo Ducale, which contains interesting equestrian statues of the Gonzaga family and has finely carved wooden and coffered ceilings, and the Teatro Olimpico, built by Scamozzi in 1588, which resembles Palladio’s more famous example in Vicenza and was the first covered theatre in Europe.  Return to Parma and dinner at the hotel.

Day 9: Saturday, 15th September

Parma / Modena / London

Leave with luggage for Modena.  Here visit the Duomo, an outstanding example of a Romanesque church built from 1099-1184.  The building is in unfaced brick with an impressively simple interior and the 282 feet high campanile, built in 1319, is known as the Ghirlandina, from the bronze garland around the weathercock.  Also visit the Biblioteca Estense, one of the richest libraries in Italy, containing 600,000 books and 15,000 manuscripts, the most interesting of which are on display.  The prize exhibit is the Bible of Borso d’Este.  It has 1,020 pages illuminated by a team of 15th century Ferrara artists including Taddeo Crivelli.

Lunch at a local restaurant.  Transfer to Bologna Airport for a British Airways flight to London, arriving Gatwick Airport in the evening.