Docking in Ravenna - San Marino ship tour?

[Travelalot2]

San Marino looks beautiful from what I've seen. Has anyone taken the ship's tour that goes to San Marino when docked in Ravenna? It looks like it covers mostly San Marino (including a walking tour and 2 hours to eat/browse) as well as a couple of the Ravenna churches with the mosaics. It's 8 hours at only $69/pp. Is it worth it to spend the time away from Ravenna? Hopefully, we'll get back in time to still have an hour or two to just browse the streets of Ravenna. Thanks.

[euro cruiser]

I'd be tempted to spend the entire day in Ravenna.

 

San Marino left me cold; it felt like a big tourist center. Now, that may have been because it was the only place, after a week staying in a cottage in Le Marche, where we ran into other Americans, and where there was a lot of English spoken. Every other doorway was selling trinkets ... such a difference from the living, breathing villages and towns we'd been visiting.

[riffatsea]

Ravenna is a world heritage site for those mosaics!

I'd probably just stay there to see them.

I am not aware of San Marino having anything particularly interesting to see.

[ab0si]

If I were on a ship docking at Ravenna, the following would be my preferences:

 

1) Spend the day in Ravenna

2) Spend the day wandering some of the lovely villages

3) Spend the day in Bologna

4) Stay on the ship

5) Go to San Marino

 

Actually Ferrara is very nice, but a bit of a drive, but make that 5 and push San Marino done a notch. :)

 

there is nothing special to see or do there. Unless you are a "country collector" who wants to add one more to your list, I would not recommend the trip.

[Travelalot2]

What are the closest villages to Ravenna that you would recommend to visit? Something accessible by train. Bologna seems to "big" to me. We like the quaint ones, with the lovely piazza's and winding back streets. Thanks!

[4774Papa]

San Marino looks beautiful from what I've seen. Has anyone taken the ship's tour that goes to San Marino when docked in Ravenna? It looks like it covers mostly San Marino (including a walking tour and 2 hours to eat/browse) as well as a couple of the Ravenna churches with the mosaics. It's 8 hours at only $69/pp. Is it worth it to spend the time away from Ravenna? Hopefully, we'll get back in time to still have an hour or two to just browse the streets of Ravenna. Thanks.

We once lived in Germany and took frequent vacations to Italy. One spring, we vacationed in Rimini, near Ravenna. We spent almost a full day there and loved it. We also visited San Marino, which was interesting, but I would give it a one star to Ravenna's three stars. As for Bologna, it was interesting, but not as much as Ravenna. The cathedral there is not finished. I would give Bologna two stars.

 

Since you time is limited, I would stay in Ravenna for the day.

[CCJack]

Spending the day in ravenna....how do we get to town and where do we ask to go if taking a taxi. Do we just ask for the town center? Approx. 12 km correct?

[Hlitner]

We feel a driving need to comment on the OPs question. We have traveled extensively in Italy (and Europe) on both cruises and also many driving trips. 3 Years ago we happened to be doing a driving vacation up to the Marche area of Italy and had enough extra time, one day, to drive ourselves to San Marino. We decided to take the detour to this little country because it was there and we had never been to the place. We also thought it might be fun to add an additonal country to our history (now up to around 80). Well, we got to San Marino, drove into town, parked, walked around for 15 min, quckly got back in the car and drove back to Italy. To put it bluntly, we thought it was just one big tourist trap with nothing worthy of our time..although it did have some OK views. It does look like a nice country to live, but we thought it was best left to the residents (many of whom spend most of their time in Italy).

 

Hank

[NCMtnBoys]

Spending the day in ravenna....how do we get to town and where do we ask to go if taking a taxi. Do we just ask for the town center? Approx. 12 km correct?

 

We're also stopping in Ravenna on our Adriatic cruise in October. At first I, too, thought about spending the day somewhere other than Ravenna (San Marino, Ferrara, even the ship's Florence excursion). But after reading about Ravenna and knowing it's a World Heritage site, and I likely won't get back there again unless on another cruise, I decided we'll spend the day in Ravenna.

 

Now I'm waiting for other folks to stop in Ravenna that can maybe report back about transportation options other than a cab into Ravenna. Yes, from what I understand it's about 12 km into town. Instead of a cab, I hope they offer some sort of shuttle into town. Once there, it should be relatively easy to walk around and see some of the well-known sites. Perhaps you could get a guidebook which would tell you what you need to know. We're using Rick Steves Italy guidebook and will be doing his recommended walking tour. If we can get a shuttle on our own into town, we'll do that rather than a ship's tour. To me, the various ship tours into Ravenna are not long enough.

[Travelalot2]

We just returned from our med cruise so I thought I would follow-up this post with our thoughts (since I have found that helpful from others who have done that in the past).

 

We did take the RCCL San Marino and Ravenna excursion when we docked in Ravenna - and I"m glad we did. Those who we spoke to who went to Ravenna were impressed with the mosaics, but, not with the town itself. This tour allowed us to see some beautiful countryside from the heights of San Marino as well has 2.5 hours on own in San Marino which we really enjoyed hiking between the towers, eating with fabulous views and shopping. Agreed, some of the shops are cheesy, but, not all of them. And, because their taxes are less, so are their prices. We stopped at one church in Classe on the outskirts of Ravenna on our return and had a guided tour of the mosaic there. This really enhanced our experience as we would not have understood all of the meaning behind what we were looking at had we visited on our own. We rarely take ship excursions but at only $69 US pp, this was hard to pass up. We found it to be a very enjoyable day and well worth the money.