Ravenna is a magical city. The splendour of its artistic and architectural masterpieces, together with the richness of its historical and political heritage and the preponderant influence of its natural surroundings made this melting-pot of cultures, in its most fecund times, the haven of intellectuals, poets, writers, artists and travellers.
We are talking about leading figures of our culture, who found here creative inspiration, pointers in their studies, peace for their eyes and food for the mind; from the poet par excellence, Dante Alighieri, who wrote Paradiso here and died in exile in 1321, to Nobel Prize winner Dario Fo, who, in 1999, causing quite a stir, rewrote the history of this city.
Or again, we can not forget those sentimental travellers, the poets George Byron, who lived in Ravenna from 1819 to 1821 and Oscar Wilde, who discovered Ravenna on horseback in 1877, right up to Thomas Stearns Eliott, who set his alienating Honeymoon (1916) here, and finally Gabriele D’Annunzio and Ezra Pound.
All of them captured this city – and everything it represents – with their pens: rooted firmly in history and ancient culture, it was for them an inexhaustible treasure chest of intense feelings and artistic inspiration.
