In all the years I lived in Italy, I never heard Italians on the virtues of Ravenna. When they tell about the highlights of their country, this city never comes up. It doesn’t share the name and fame of other Northern Italian cities. While historically, it’s at least as important as the lot of them, and culturally it has a lot to share.
The advantage of all that is that it’s not an tourist madhouse, and an lovely place to stroll around and slowly discover.