But the fact is that cold several degrees below the freezing point is by no means rare in the sub-Alpine and sub-Apennine districts of northern Italy.
And Ravenna is a specially cold place.

At Florence, the winter, though short, is often sharp enough; and the climate of the old Tuscan city is considered a somewhat severe one for Italy.

But the district which lies to the north-eastward, on the low coast of the upper part of the stormy Adriatic, is much colder.

There is nothing, neither hill nor forest, between the Friulian Alps and Ravenna, to prevent the north-eastern winds, bringing with them a Siberian temperature, from sweeping the low shelterless plain on which the ancient capital of the Exarchs is situated.
They were so sweeping that plain, and howling fiercely through the deserted streets of the old city, on the November evening in question.
Nevertheless there were several persons loitering around the door of that ancient hostelry, the "Albergo della Spada," in the Via del Monte, then as now, and for many a generation past, the principal inn of Ravenna.

They were wrapped in huge cloaks, most of them with hoods to them, which gave the wearers a strange sort of monkish appearance.