The “Mosaic City” of Ravenna is renowned for its 1500-year-old churches, decorated with exquisite Byzantine mosaics of brilliant color and amazing detail. It can also be a gateway to other spots with claims to historical fame. Bologna, with its magnificently preserved, uniform architectural style, and not one, but two leaning towers, is the site of the first institution of higher learning in the Western world, for which the term “university” was coined. And the tiny Republic of San Marino, dating from 301 AD, it is perhaps the oldest surviving state and constitutional republic in the world.
