Leaving the church around the corner, one may find one of the world's sole Arian-faith baptisteries, the official Arian-faith Baptistery of Theodoric the Great sunken into ground next to another large Catholic church that was originally commissioned by Theodoric also before its conversion. This is one of the few baptistery buildings that can be entered in the world, as baptism has since generally been performed in churches outside of the Mandaean faith in the Arab world whose faith is believed to have sprung from John the Baptist himself. John is in this baptistery of Ravenna praised as its central theme: a massive ceiling mosaic of gold more than 1,500 years old covers this small building in original mint condition. The ceiling decoration shows a number of white-robed holy saints or disciples with halos atop their heads watching John's baptism of Jesus of Nazareth with a white dove atop to, allegedly, signify the Holy Ghost's presence in the man upon this "true birth" (baptism). In this image, baptism of Jesus was done in the nude at an adult age with the entire body. This may indicate that this was the method of baptism in German Arian-faith tradition. The surrounding room is at this point empty with several recesses in the corners perhaps to hold separate baptisms at the same time, often to adult converts instead of infants borne thereof. After the brief Byzantine conquest under Justinian and the later Catholic authority of the native Italians as seen today, this blasphemous baptistery was closed and converted into a Catholic shrine.

A drive to the outskirts of the city center reveals easily one of the most magnificent buildings extant on earth. It was not built by Germans nor Greeks, but rather the R. native Italians. This allows a visitor to see not only the importance of Ravenna in history, but also to see first hand the shift from Roman rule to German, from German to Greek, from Greek back to German (Lombardic) and later to the Germans in Germany under Charlemagne, and finally to the native Italians once again. This church, called the Basilica di San Vitale, was built by Bishop Ecclesio (522-532) with the approval of Pope John I for honoring a Roman soldier who was martyred during the Roman persecution of the Christian minority centuries prior. Having seen the world over, other than the Pyramids of Giza and Stonehenge perhaps, this single cathedral easily surpasses all of the cathedrals of Europe, the Orthodox Hagia Sophia in Istanbul (converted to a mosque after the Turkish Jihad succeeded), and approaches or even surpasses the glory of the Vatican's cathedrals. This massive sunken cathedral, more than 1,400 years old, is breathtaking. Nearly a hundred feet tall, nearly every inch of this domed cathedral is covered in original mosaic, gold, gem, jewel, marble, fresco, or statue easily in mint condition. There are endless depictions of saints, apostles, biblical scenes, sacrificial animals (including a strange lamb to symbolize Jesus of Nazareth), stories of the Crucifixion, Revelations, the Great Flood, the revelation of the Ten Commandments to Moses (with a Burning Bush shown), the Assumption of Mary into heaven, the Nativity scene, the incomplete sacrifice of Isaac (or as Muslims claim, Ishmail) by Abraham, etc. Staring at the church's interior for hours would not reveal every depiction or intricate artistic creation this church has to offer. It is sad that a building whose majesty rivals any world wonder is virtually unknown, along with the importance of the city of Ravenna in history from the Roman period to the German and onward.

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