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Home > Travel Italy > Italy Destinations > Ravenna
Ravenna
Italy, officially the Italian Republic or Repubblica Italiana, is a Southern European country comprising of the Po River valley, the Italian Peninsula and the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. It is shaped like a boot and for this reason Italians commonly call it lo Stivale, the boot or, due to its prevalent peninsular geographical nature, la Penisola, the Peninsula.
Ravenna is a city in the Romagna region of Italy. The city is inland, but is united with the Adriatic Sea by a canal. It once was the seat of the Roman Empire and later the Ostrogothic kingdom. It is currently the capital of the province of Ravenna. The origins of Ravenna are not sure. The first resolution is attributed to the Tyrrhenians, the Thessalians, or the Umbrians. It included houses built on piles on range of small islands in a marshy lagoon. This was a situation identical to Venice many centuries later.
In 49 Before Christ, it was the place where Julius Caesar collected his forces prior to crossing the Rubicon. After his battle with Mark Anthony in 45 BC, Emperor Augustus established the military harbor of Classe. This harbor was saved by its own walls and was an important station of the Roman imperial fleet. Currently the city is landlocked, but Ravenna stays a vital seaport on the Adriatic till the early Middle Ages.
Ravenna prospered under Roman rule and Emperor Trajan built a 70 kilometers long aqueduct at the start of the 2nd century. In 402, Emperor Honorius relocated the capital of the Western Roman Empire from Milan to Ravenna. The relocation was done mainly for defense. Ravenna was enclosed within swamps and marshes and had ease of access to Imperial forces of the Eastern Roman Empire. It is known as the town of best geographical environment and has traced its origins back to prehistoric times.
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