Torre Civica del Comune (Campanile di Piazza del Popolo)
Climb the medieval bell tower beside Piazza del Popolo and the entire terracotta skyline of Ravenna unfolds beneath you — octagonal apses, red-tiled rooftops and, on clear days, the Adriatic glinting on the horizon.
The View and What You Can Spot
From the top you can pick out the eight-sided drum of San Vitale, the slender campanile of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo and, stretching east, the flat green ribbon of the Pineta di Classe forest meeting the sea. It's the best single vantage point for understanding how compactly Ravenna's UNESCO monuments are clustered.
Sunrise and the hour before sunset are the golden windows — the low light turns the terracotta rooftops a deep copper and the mosaics inside nearby churches glow through their windows. Pack a wide-angle lens or use portrait mode on your phone for the compressed skyline shot.
Access and Visiting Practicalities
The tower is managed by the Comune di Ravenna and opens on selected days, typically weekend mornings and during festivals such as the Ravenna Festival in June and July. Entry is free or by small donation on open days.
Check the Comune di Ravenna website or the tourist office on Via Salara for the current opening calendar before you visit — hours are irregular and the tower occasionally closes for maintenance. The climb involves a narrow spiral staircase of around 100 steps with no lift.
Piazza del Popolo itself is worth lingering in regardless: the two Venetian columns topped with bronze statues of Sant'Apollinare and San Vitale are a legacy of the city's time under Venetian rule and make for a strong foreground in wide-angle shots of the tower.
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