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Image by Anna Church

Ravenna: The Twilight of the Roman Empire

Thursday, November 30th

***SOLD OUT***

 

Private Visit to the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel and Walking tour of Rome
Monday, December 11th

Image by Sandra Dempsey

Ravenna: The Twilight of the Roman Empire

 

Thursday, November 30th

***SOLD OUT***

For a brief, dazzling moment, Ravenna was an unlikely refuge for a world falling apart. The city’s history, enshrined in superb Byzantine mosaics, reflects the twilight of the Roman Empire and the beginning of the Middle Ages. While ageless monuments were falling everywhere, Ravenna was crowded with new and sumptuous palaces and churches. As the capital of the Western Roman Empire in its last days, then of the occidental provinces of the Byzantine Empire, it offered a refuge of luxury and splendor, a return to antique civilization rising above the relentless seas of barbarism.

Art historian Elaine Ruffolo, highlights the history of this city, its important architecture, and the extraordinarily decorative walls of its palaces and churches—masterpieces of an age when artistic achievement was reaching one of its summits in the form of mosaics. UNESCO has recognized the “outstanding universal value” of Ravenna’s early Christian buildings, citing “the supreme artistry of the mosaic art that the monuments contain” and “the crucial evidence that they provide of artistic and religious relationships and contacts at an important period of European cultural history

 

Thursday November 30

Transportation (private coach) 

 

Depart at 8:15 AM Piazza Ferrucci

Break outside of Bologna

Return from Ravenna around 5:00 PM and arrive in Florence around 7:30 PM (traffic permitting)

 

Itinerary:

Coach to center of Ravenna

Church of San Vitale

Mausoleum of Galla Placidia

Neonian Baptistery

Dante’s Tomb

Sant’Apollinare Nuovo 

 

1:45 PM Fabulous lunch at Osteria del Tempo Perso

 

Sant’Apollinare in Classe

 

Price

190.00 Euro per person (minimum of 12 participants)

Price includes: transportation, entrances fee/tips, lunch, instruction

You can pay in cash, Zelle (elaine.ruffolo@gmail.com), credit card or Paypal on my website at https://www.elaineruffolo.com/donate. If you pay via the website, please add 3% ($195). Please indicate the payment is for the Day Trip to Ravenna


Respond to Kellin at admin@elaineruffolo.com to hold your place. 

SOLD OUT

Private Visit to the Vatican Museums and

Sistine Chapel and Walking Tour of Rome

 

Monday, December 11th

The Vatican Museums are brimming with classical and religious works of art collected throughout the centuries. Combined with the Sistine Chapel, the museums are visited by over six million people a year and rank among the most popular art museums in the world. To avoid the confusion and congestion of the crowds, join Elaine Ruffolo for a private encounter. On Monday, December 11, the doors of the Vatican will open at exactly 7:00 pm so we can enjoy an exclusive, after-hours, guided visit. We will explore the Antique Statuary collection, the Map Gallery, the Tapestries, the Raphael rooms, and the Sistine Chapel…all on our own. Our visit will end with an apericena in the courtyard of the Vatican.

Before our private evening visit, I am offering a walking tour of the Campus Marzio, the historic neighborhood around the Pantheon. We will meet at 3:30 pm in front of the Pantheon and visit the following monuments: Pantheon, San Luigi dei Francesi (Caravaggio), Sant'Agostino (Raphael and Caravaggio), and the Piazza Navona (Bernini). We will finish around 5:30 and have a break for a snack before we depart by private minivans to the entrance of the Vatican.

 

When we finish at the Vatican museums, minivans will transfer us to a convenient location in Rome.

 

What's Included:
Walking tour and visits to monuments in the center of Rome including the Pantheon, Caravaggio's Contarelli Chapel at San Luigi dei Francesi, Sant'Agostino, and Piazza Navona.
After hours visit to the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel culminating with a Roman apericena.
Transportation by minivans within Rome.
 
Cost and Payment:
The cost for the event is 435 euros per person.

 

You can pay in cash, Zelle (elaine.ruffolo@gmail.com), credit card or Paypal on my website at https://www.elaineruffolo.com/donate. If you pay via the website, please add 3% ($448). Please indicate the payment is for the private Sistine Chapel visit. 


Respond to Kellin at admin@elaineruffolo.com to hold your place. 

 

Note: Your transportation to and from Rome and hotel accommodation are not included.

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