For centuries the sea reached this field. Classe was the port of Ravenna, a harbour built by Augustus to station the Roman Adriatic fleet, and merchants, sailors and soldiers filled its quays until the river silt choked the channels and the coast crept east. Today the port is farmland, the sea is five kilometres off, and the great church of Sant'Apollinare stands alone among the fields, a tall brick basilica with a round bell tower, rising from the plain like a ship stranded on a sandbank. It was consecrated in 549, in the time of Justinian, and stands over the tomb of the first bishop of Ravenna, Apollinaris, who is said to have been a disciple of Saint Peter. UNESCO listed the early Christian monuments of Ravenna in 1996.
Inside, the apse glows. A great mosaic shows Apollinaris standing among green meadows in prayer, with twelve sheep representing the faithful, and above him the sky is gold, with a cross set among stars. The colours, made of tiny pieces of glass and stone, have lasted for fourteen centuries and look nearly fresh. Light from the windows moves across the surface through the day, and the basilica is best in the morning or late afternoon. The nave is wide and plain, a long procession of marble columns, and it feels very quiet.
The pine forest behind the church, the Pineta di Classe, was already ancient when Dante wrote about it. The poet spent his last years in Ravenna, exiled from Florence, and he died here in 1321. He set the earthly paradise at the top of Purgatory in a divine forest that many readers take to be this one, with birds singing in the pines. Walking among the trees, on sandy paths with the smell of resin, is worth an hour.
The ride is flat and easy, along the straight roads of the Romagna plain, where the main hazard is fog and the second is agricultural traffic. The Apennines rise a short way inland, with good roads climbing through chestnut woods. Ravenna, four kilometres away, has everything: fuel, parking, cafes and a splendid sequence of mosaics in San Vitale and other churches. Piadina, the thin flatbread of Romagna, stuffed with prosciutto and squacquerone cheese, is the proper lunch. Mosquitoes can be fierce in summer near the pinewood, so bring repellent.