Educated, rebellious and passionate, Lord Byron first visited Ravenna in 1816 during the Grand Tour of classical Europe that many scions of English nobility made as an obligatory stop on their personal training.
His relationship with the city was marked by his meeting with Teresa Gamba Guiccioli, a young noblewoman who became his muse and lover, despite her marriage to the much older Count Alessandro Guiccioli.
Following Teresa, Byron settled in Ravenna in 1819 and lived amid impetuous passions and political fervour, coming close to the Carbonari uprisings supported by Teresa's brother and father. Here, the poet immersed himself in the city's Byzantine beauty, its legendary pine forests and the work of Dante, which he studied with fervour to the point of making a literary alter ego of his own.
It is clear that the city spoke the same language – art, poetry and revolution.
From the sumptuous halls of Palazzo Guiccioli, now home to the Byron Museum, to the silent paths in the pine forests of Classe and San Vitale, this itinerary will make you follow the footsteps of the great English romantic poet in places that still preserve his spirit, among history, literature and nature. Ready to hit the road?
The journey begins at Palazzo Guiccioli, one of the most elegant buildings in Ravenna’s historical centre, where byron lived from 1819 to 1821. Among its distinguished guests was also the poet Percy B. Shelley.
In these rooms he was able to produce many passages of his most important works and became the sounding board for European Romantic and neoclassical culture that he wanted to be.
Today, the palace is home to the Byron Museum, the world’s first museum dedicated to the English poet.
The display tells his life and works through personal memorabilia and surprising multimedia installations, offering an immersive experience through past and present thanks to a refined and engaging storytelling.
Palazzo Guiccioli is also home to the Italian Byron Society and houses the Risorgimento Museum, to whose ideals Byron also strongly adhered, in his ongoing quest for excess, between love and the desire for freedom.
As soon as he arrived in Ravenna, again thanks to Teresa Gamba Guiccioli, great connoisseur of the Supreme Poet, Byron became passionate about Dante and began to study and fervently translate his works. The result of his intense studies would be the work The Prophecy of Dante, in the pages of which the English poet makes Dante speak in the first person. He prophesied the Unification of Italy, at the end of an intense period of wars and invasions.
During the writing of the work, Byron often visited Dante’s Tomb, located in the fascinating Zone of Silence, next to Casa Dante and Museo Dante, and each time he lifted his hat in reverence, as if in front of a lay saint.
Built in the late 18th century, the Mausoleum designed by Morigia was at the centre of an adventurous affair concerning the missing bones of the Supreme Poet, who lived his last years in Ravenna. This detail is just one of many that put Byron and Dante in common, and that led the English scholar to choose him as his alter-ego in this work. Both exiles, poor and wandering, both dedicated to poetry and freedom, they will both die afar from their homeland, constantly looking for enlightenment and new words.
Here, where today is the prestigious Oriani Library – work of architect Giulio Ulisse Arata who oversaw its design during the redevelopment of the entire Zona Dantesca in the ‘30s – once stood Casa Rizzetti, also known for having hosted the the ardent English poet, Lord George Gordon Byron. During his very first visit to the city, he stayed at Albergo Imperiale, which was located within that historical mansion.
Today the library, named after writer Alfredo Oriani, is a prestigious centre for historical, contemporary, political, economical and social studies, much frequented and often a site for exhibitions. Thanks to its location, a few steps away from Dante’s tomb, it keeps alive the memory of the English poet, who departed every day for his visits to the tomb.
For the second day dedicated to Byron, one must move outside the city.
Byron often went in search of pleasant places in which he could meditate and find that romantic essence that he and his characters were constantly seeking.
Almost everyday, he took long walks and wild rides, which often took him to the pine forest of Classe and San Vitale, which he had imagined even before arriving in Ravenna, thanks to the works of Dante and Boccaccio.
In perhaps his most important work, Don Giovanni, he recounts how among those trees and along the watercourses he breathed Dryden’s fabl, the chorus of the people in the Decameron and the majesty of prophecy in the Divine Comedy. And again, in his Conversations he restates how there was “something stimulating” in that air.
These pine forests, with a history at times similar and at times very different, are still among the most beloved places for the people of Ravenna and their many visitors. Perfect for excursions on foot, by bike, on horseback or a canoe, they allow you to relive the emotions of the poet through silent paths, thousand-year-old trees, unique wetland areas and many species of animals, particularly visible at sunset.
Ravenna’s pine forests offer the possibility to spend and incredible day in the open air, in a timeless environment just a few minutes away from the city, maybe enjoying a picnic in one of the many equipped green areas.
The widest and most easily reachable are Parco 1° Maggio, inside the Pine forest of Classe and Parco 2 Giugno, to the north, at the entrance of the Pine forest of San Vitale.
