England - Italy: The Byron Connection - Newstead Abbey and Ravenna
- Art - Culture - Tourism
- Jul 18
- 7 min read
Updated: Jul 20
By Stuart Baird
Nottingham, 18th July 2025
Photographs by Stuart Baird
Byron is one of the highest profile literary figures in the world and attracts attention from global media, literary and cultural travellers from across the world. His outrageous behaviour, including multiple affairs with the wives of the wealthy, drinking from the skull of a monk on the Italian Grand Tour, as well as his poetry and cultural impact continues to capture the imagination worldwide.
He is one of many reasons Nottingham was declared a UNESCO City of Literature in 2015 and continues to draw in cultural visitors from across the globe. What is probably not as well-known is his connection with Ravenna – a stunning city on the east (Adriatic) coast of Italy, south of Venice – itself a UNESCO World Heritage centre with eight UNESCO ancient monuments.
A multimillion-pound renovation of Byron’s Ravenna bolthole as well as the development of a Byron taverna has revived interest in the poet in the UK, Italy and across the world.
Byron’s Nottinghamshire’s roots
While Byron’s Nottinghamshire home, Newstead, represented his last connection with his homeland, it also represented debt and decay. He wrote in 1807, "Newstead! fast-falling, once-resplendent dome! Hail to thy pile! more honour'd in thy fall Than modern mansions in their pillar'd state, Proudly majestic frowns thy vaulted hall, Scowling defiance on the blasts of fate."
He is acknowledged as being the first ‘rock star poet’ and ‘international playboy’ – famous in his own lifetime, with his works selling tens of thousands on the first day of print - something modern poets can only dream of.
Conversely when he found home in Ravenna, he found peace and revival and wrote some of his famous works there. He wrote of his “romantic solitude” as he rode through the pine forests of Ravenna, reminding him of his rides in Nottinghamshire.
Tourism between the UK in Italy has been established for many centuries and 6.2 million Brits will make their ‘Grand Tours’ every year, 1.7 million Italians will cross the channel to come visit the UK in return.
In the East Midlands, tourism is worth £5bn to the local economy (Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire) and supports 55,000 jobs with 71 million visits to the region.
While some of Italy’s main locations struggle with over-tourism, chiefly Venice, Florence and Rome – and in Pompeii restrictions on daily numbers are being put in place – Ravenna has managed to find the perfect harmony of greeting the discerning traveller. To quote Shakespeare ‘to your own self, be true – then you cannot be false to anyone’: while staying true to itself, Ravenna is an ancient but also modern living, breathing community.
Two hundred years ago Byron commented in one of his many letters: "Ravenna retains more of its old Italian style than any other city. It remains out of the way of travellers and therefore that style has remained original."
That may change. But possibly not. In April this year their Royal Highnesses the King and Queen Camilla travelled to Ravenna – the only place they visited outside of Rome. And while the King marvelled at 5th century Byzantine churches, the Queen spent so much time in the Byron centre – which is also a centre for Italian nationalism – she had to be urged away by her courtiers in order to stick to their time table.
Finding solace and inspiration in Ravenna
Why did Byron travel to Ravenna in the first place? Well, after several affairs in Venice, he moved to the Palazzo Guiccioli home of the 21-year-old Countess Guiccioli, where he lived between 1819 to 1821 and was visited by Shelley, as well as others. Married off to an elderly Count at 19, Teresa Gamba was besotted with Byron and after his untimely death in Greece, she made the pilgrimage back to Newstead where she collected ferns to bring back to her home in Italy.
The restored Palazzo is an immersive Byron experience with memorabilia, relics, texts and personal belongings of Byron. Videos spring to life and you find yourself part of a throng of dancers at the Venice Carnavale. When you pick up a nearby quill Byron’s words flow on a huge screen as you yourself have written them. And if you really want a treat,what do you can see relics from Byron’s time there yourself – some more appealing than others.
Locks of his hair were collected and personal items, as well as his prolific letter writing. Following a three-hour swim in the blistering Italian sun, the Countess saved fragments of Byron’s peeling skin.
The beautiful taverna, sited in the cellars where Byron’s menagerie of monkeys, horses, dogs,
cats, cranes and peacocks roamed, is run by Massimo Serena Monghini, who is famed by Italians for his nearby Osteria. It is a wonderfully relaxed environment with the trademark Italian precision in friendly service and wonderful food.
Thankfully, the visiting Brits don’t need a peerage to dine there with a menu for all tastes marked by simplicity and love. The most expensive wine on the menu was Euro 100.
To step into Ravenna feels like being welcomed into the home of an old friend or favourite family
member, with warmth, love and charm. Strangers, neighbours or passersby will greet one another ‘buongiorno, comestai?’ ‘bene, bene!’. Ravenna feels like home.
Byron himself was inspired while here, rejuvenated in his passions and in his poetry
while igniting his love for the nationalism of the emerging Italian and Greek nations.
The Grand Tour was a way of the rich British to educate themselves and immerse themselves in culture. It started a love affair between the two countries which grows deeper in affection every year that passes. For the British travellers it captivates, it leaves an indelible mark – I am just one of many.
If you want to see a physical love letter to Italy, look no further than our stately homes in the East Midlands – from Calke and Kedleston and on and across all England, Scotland and Wales, where the rich came home from Italy determined to recreate its architecture and somehow capture Italy in England forever in its landscape as much as their hearts.
A lifelong Grand Tour
I have been on my own ‘Grand Tour’ of Italy for the last 29 years, covering ground even my forebears would envy. From Garda and Verona in the north, the four corners of Tuscany, Venice, Rome, the Amalfi coast, Sardinia, Sicily and Calabria. I even cheered at the modern Coliseum of the San Siro watching my team take on Paolo Maldini’s AC Milan.
But thanks to a wonderful and amazing personal guide, Patrizia Poggi, a native of Ravenna and an ACT Advisor, as well as the warmth and charm of Ravenna as well as its deep cultural history, it has taken a firm hold in my heart – just as it did Byron.
While I took in Dante’s tomb and the main sights of Ravenna, it was a privilege to meet some of the interesting characters and families from the city.
Matteo Tonini, who is now 88 and who has run Tonini Antiquarian Bookshop his whole life in the heart of the city, and Elisabetta Gulli Grigioni, anthropologist, museologist, and writer, who has a surprising collection of artifacts is tied to folk tradition and its symbols, particularly that of the heart.
A father, Fernando and son Umberto, of the Turicchia family of the Antica Trattoria Al Gallo 1909, a historic Italian restaurant: it was without a doubt the best and most memorable restaurant I have ever been in. A beautiful space with beautiful people creating an experience, not just a meal. La vita e bella.
And finally, a meeting and lunch at the Ravenna Yacht Club with learned scholar Cesare Poppi, an anthropologist, who spent many happy years at University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK: the perfect company, in a perfect place.
The modern cultural pilgrimage
With its deep history, its wonderful squares and friendly inhabitants, I discovered the only downside of Ravenna… like Byron, I had to leave. As Andrea Bocelli sings – con te partirò – I think I left a piece of my heart with Elisabetta for her collection.
He left to fight for Greek independence and heroically died of a fever before he could head to battle. The Countess never forgot the love of her life and carried a case with his many love letters wherever she went – all of them preserved for us today but only really revealed in full in 2005.
As an elderly woman, when she heard someone say that Byron was the ‘king of poets’ she replied that he was ‘the king of men’.
But for any literature or cultural tourist, you can whet your appetite for Byron with a trip just up the road to Newstead, with its wonderful collection and stunning, Gothic grounds – a must visit at any time of year.
For those wanting to follow in his footsteps to Ravenna, travel in the cooler early summer or into early September for the best experience but there is much on offer whenever you want to go.
Ravenna is close to both Rimini and Bologna airports with regular flights from London airports from £80 per person. From Bologna an hour by train costs 7 Euro per person. Hotels in Ravenna cost from £60 per room per night upwards, they have high standards compared to most cities.
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Stuart Baird founded Nottingham PR consultancy BakerBaird in 2015 after 20 years as a director of communications in Government and the NHS. He has worked for all major Government departments, for the King and in No 10 Downing Street for Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, as well as on national campaigns such as Think! Kill Your Speed, the departments of International Trade and Culture, Media and Sport –
encouraging UK firms to export and supporting the cultural industries. In consultancy he has worked with BAFTA award winner Shane Meadows and Hollywood star Kate Beckinsale. The consultancy has won 12 industry awards since its inception.
Patrizia Poggi is ACT Advisor, a native of Ravenna and has 30 years in the forefront to enhance the Italian heritage, art and culture sector, she is an art consultant and gallerist, formerly resident manager of the Relais Villa Roncuzzi, member of the Association of Social Promotion “Taste Italy Aps”, Ambassador of Knowledge and Flavors of Italy for Italy&Friends in Florence. For a fuller blog on the cultural significance of Ravenna – please see Patrizia’s last ACT piece.
This blog was published by Marysia Zipser, Founder of Art Culture Tourism and ACT Ambassador
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Links:
https://www.ravennafestival.org/en/ https://newsteadabbey.org.uk/ https://www.visit-nottinghamshire.co.uk/
Basilica di San Vitale, Ravenna
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