Emilia-Romagna is a vast, prosperous region of Italy, famed for its farm produce, fast cars and artisanal cooking oils. Edging closer to the Eastern seaboard, but not actually on the coast, you’ll find one of its jewels, Ravenna.
With a population of 156,000, Ravenna is no quiet, out of the way city. Its history includes having been the capital of the Western Roman Empire, although I don’t quite follow that logic, given it sits on the east side of Rome. The Byzantines then moved in, and their legacy might well be one of the most celebrated aspects of the city to this very day. A world of mosaics sits amongst the ancient buildings of Ravenna town, which are festooned with the intricate delights of such craftsmanship. As you’d expect, UNESCO slapped a ticket on them, not one but eight indeed, and many tourists are lured well east of Bologna to see them all.
Regular readers will know that I am always describing the fourth tier of Italian football (Serie D) in particular as Dante’s Ninth Circle of Hell, mainly because it is jolly difficult to find an escape hatch. Ravenna did find a splendid route out of the fourth Girone, D (they coincidentally have 9) in 2024/25. Usually it requires winning your league of 18 sides to guarantee promotion, but they do have a play off in each of the nine “groupings” between the 2nd and 5th positioned sides, and those winners sit in a ranking table awaiting the possibility to be “fished” up to replace the inevitable spaces left by those unable to fulfill their Serie C commitments. Ravenna were the beneficiaries in the summer of 2025, aided perhaps by a splendid victory in the Coppa Italia, as well as clinching the playoff winners spot.
Pistoiese, who also plays in Girone D, won this year’s edition of that cup competition but fell flat afterwards. They didn’t win the end of the season play offs, losing out to another “big” name of yesteryear, Piacenza, who could well also find themselves playing in the true professional structure for ‘26/27.
Ravenna really took advantage of the good fortune in being given a pass for Serie C, and consistently, they were jousting with Arezzo (ultimate winners) and Ascoli for the top spot. They ended up third, still a highly respectable end of season position on debut back at this level. Third place gave them a bye through rounds one and two in the lengthy end of season play offs in Serie C. They were drawn to play Cittadella in round three, a two-legged affair, with the second match at home in Ravenna. They were one of the early guaranteed to finish third sides, which allowed me to shape my trip around a match here.
I have been in Ravenna a few times, once previously for a game, an end of season penultimate round match in Serie D versus Delta Rovigo. They duly won that game in 2017 and stepped up to C back then, too. Given the size of Ravenna, Serie C is minimally where they should be playing, but as we know everywhere, the population doesn’t correlate to success on a pitch. They have tasted Serie B too, but that was going back to the ‘90’s now.
I always enjoy coming back here. It had been 7 years since my last day trip to Ravenna, but this time, with an under the lights play-off game to enjoy, I stayed for overnight for the first time. Mosaic tourism has certainly taken off in the interim. A fairly constant number of organised tour groups were spotted getting walked through the tight, ancient streets of this delightful city. In the main Piazza, the Del Popolo (similarly named gig in Roma and various other cities), we are in the realm of the Doge. Subsequent to Roman or Byzantine involvement, the Venetians came a calling, and they loved to leave a pillar or two as a kind of yesteryear calling card for history to remember them.
There is a whiff of the Orthodox world here too unusually, something that you’d expect more openly across the Adriatic in Macedonia or Serbia, for example. The Basilica San Vitale wouldn’t be out of place on the banks of Lake Ochrid rather than in Ravenna. The Baptistery is an example of the skill and craftsmanship involved in the world of Mosaics. All of this still stands despite rogue Allies bombs in WWII, where they tried to take out the railway station in 1944, but instead pulverised the city’s most distinct church, the Giovanni Evangelista. In liberating Ravenna, 937 Commonwealth soldiers died, all of whom are remembered in the War Cemetery in the city.
Much earlier in history, Dante Alighieri had scampered from his beloved Florence, banished as he was by the Medici family back in the day. He lived out the end of his days in Ravenna until his funeral in 1321. His tomb sits outside a church in the city. Modern Florentines want their man back, but Ravenna continues to resist.
Lord Byron happened by, lived here for a couple of years, took inspiration, even married a local lass. However, not wishing to rubbish one of the doyens of travel observers from the early 19th century, but his material doesn’t really stand the test of time does it? It seems light, even fluffy and stultifyingly dull in my opinion. Now Oscar Wilde on the other hand, took inspiration in 1878 to write a poem about Ravenna, doubtlessly with a yard of ale by his side!
So, having given the beauty of Ravenna a respectful re-visit, it was time to head back to my hotel and get ready for the match. It was a warm, positively balmy early May night, and while not exactly a walk through ancient streets, Ravenna is a prosperous city and you can see it as you walk out to the stadium. It will take around 30 minutes, a very flat and pleasant walk, but do watch out for the bicycles. The positively flat, almost Dutch nature of Ravenna sees it have more cyclists than many similar places.
The Bruno Benelli stadium is celebrating its 60th birthday this year. It has four sides, however as with many of similar venues in Italy, the seating opposite the main stand has been redundant for so long it doubtlessly needs a serious upgrade, but its capacity is still allegedly 12,000. Part of the rationale for registering only “parts” of stadiums in Italy is to do with tax. If you are unlikely to use a stand, etc, why would you want to pay any taxation for having an unnecessarily big capacity. In the intervening 9 years since I was last here, some claret and amber seats have been put down on the Curva, albeit in an area where 90% of those attending a game never sit. Aside from that, nothing has changed. In a nutshell, part of the problem with modernising football in this land.
While on my high horse, now I know Italians don’t go to a game for culinary enlightenment. I get that totally. No country in the world is blessed with such exquisite cuisine. However, the predictability of the in-house catering at merely an espresso coffee, a beer, a bottle of water, and a bag of ready salted crisps, in a roundabout Byron-esque way, it is pretty tedious. Ravenna isn’t alone in this horror show or lack of imagination in the cafeteria. No outside catering vans were around either, and with everywhere shut for the night upon full-time, make sure you have carbed up before going!
When the first leg of this match took place in Cittadella, I was keeping an eye on events from my Giulianova hotel. The home side had raced into a two nil lead, and I was thinking the return could quite easily be a piece of deadwood. However, Ravenna rallied, and two late goals brought parity and an enthusiastic response from the city, who subsequently poured into the Benelli to watch the return.
It was, however, a very Italian thing that happened. The first leg was played on Sunday night, with the second scheduled for the Wednesday evening. No tickets went on sale until Monday, even though here in the UK or elsewhere, for that matter, they’d have been selling briefs well before the first match was played. Had Cittadella won 3-0, for example, it could have been catastrophic in terms of those looking to attend, and the club would have lost revenue big time. It worked out ok, but it was a risky strategy, in my opinion.
Rightly on Monday, season ticket holders were given the first opportunity to snap up a ticket (unlike at Modena in Serie B, where season ticket holders could buy up to 4 tickets before a public sale!). The 10am Tuesday commencement for the general public saw me immediately online to buy. They were all sold out for the home sections by the end of the day.
The online ticket portal gave me a glimpse of what seats were available, and I chose a nice back row seat near the centre line in the Tribuna, the mainstand. I found my numbered seat and was enjoying the pre-match build up when minutes before kick off, I got tapped on the shoulder by this elderly gentleman. I was in his seat! I begged to differ as the shiny plaque on the base of the seat said 210, which correlated to the number on my ticket. A wag of the finger and much nodding from those around, and I was ejected?! Well, not ejected per se, but forced to move. A white sticker on the back of the seat with a crayoned number 199 took precedence over a plaque with a different number?! Wherever my seat was, I had no clue. It was doubtlessly taken as the place filled up ahead of kickoff. I joined a few others standing at the back, and was enjoying the start of the game when a steward came along and told us to get away from where we were watching. Despite being behind the cameraman, we were allegedly getting in the way! I found a seat, but it took me a while to start enjoying the game after all this nonsense. An absolutely ridiculous situation having paid a good price for a fine vantage, too.
Cittadella, who are just down from Serie B this term, had been inconsistent throughout the campaign. The late collapse in the first leg was a mirror image of a similar 2-2 draw in the round previous, when on three or four occasions in the last minutes they could easily have lost. In Italy, prior to the last rounds, league placing counts. It is a very fair notion in my book, and Cittadella had made it to these games with Ravenna courtesy of that rule. They took the lead just ahead of the break here, and at that juncture, they were perhaps the more composed outfit.
However, in Andrea Mandorlini, they have a wily old coach, who drives his charges on with vivid enthusiasm and passion on the sidelines. He is a captivating watch as the game unfolds, kicking every ball, constantly moving his pieces to fit the scenario on the pitch. In the second half, the game went up a level, the intensity and also craft on display from Ravenna, perhaps akin to how they pulled it back in Cittadella. They created so many opportunities, but a combination of poor finishing and last gasp defence saw the clock tick into the last 15 minutes before they got their deserved equaliser. The place went wild, although let me qualify that. I have watched more games in the south of Italy these years, and ‘wild’ in Ravenna is positively restrained in comparison.
The 3-3 on aggregate was all Ravenna needed to progress, but they didn’t sit back, and neither did the visitors. It was frantic stuff until the ref called a halt and the home fans could celebrate.
The Ravenna story ran out in the Quarter-Finals with a brace of 2-0 losses to Salernitana seeing them retired at that stage. However, if they wind the clock back 12 months, the club hadn’t even been confirmed in Serie C until July, maybe even August, so what they achieved was remarkable.
As I walked back to the hotel contemplating what I had watched, I had a goal alert on two big matches in Scotland. I arrived back at my hotel as Hearts were confirmed 3-0 winners, while the game in Motherwell was still going at 2-2. I hung around outside awaiting the final whistle. It never came, messages arrived of a ridiculous penalty award, and so it proved to be. The sort of decision that once was the domain of Juventus in Italy had been handed on a platter to the dominant club in Scotland, and despite only being a Hearts sympathiser, it hurt. We all know what subsequently unfolded.
Ravenna is a fabulous city. A day trip from Rimini, Bologna or Ferrara if you want, but in the evening when the majority of tourists depart, it takes on its own classically Italian atmosphere. It’s a laidback and relaxed place. You won’t be disappointed.
Football Adventures with James Rendall 