In the footsteps of the great poet… from the hills to the sea
A journey of discovery through some of the places that inspired Dante in the writing of his most important work “The Divine Comedy”.
During the journey you will have the opportunity to visit the main stages of the poet’s journey, when exiled from Florence he crossed our territory. You will be able to see with your own eyes the real places and settings and their links with the intense suggestions narrated by Dante in his work.
Each of the locations touched during the experience represents a small element of the mosaic that led the poet to the creation of the work we all know today.
The first stop on this journey of knowledge is the medieval Rimini, to which Francesca da Polenta is linked. She is the protagonist together with Paolo of Canto V of the Inferno, as they are among the lustful in the second circle. The city with its Castel Sismondo is one of the key places linked to the family of Francesca, who was married to Giovanni Malatesta (known as Gianciotto), son of the lord of Rimini.
According to Dante, Francesca had an extramarital affair with Gianciotto’s brother-in-law, Paolo, and the two were surprised by her husband and both were killed.
“Amor, ch’a nullo amato amar perdona, mi preso del costui piacer tanto forte, che, come vedi, ancora non m’abbandona”
This famous phrase from Dante’s Divine Comedy brings to life the small village of Gradara, which also became famous thanks to the story of Paolo and Francesca. In fact, the Rocca di Gradara is a stop on our Dante itinerary.
The Rocca is the place to which the tragedy that led to the death of the two lovers is ideally linked.
Although the location of the tragedy is never defined in the opera, the Rocca di Gradara, which belonged to the Malatesta family, has always attracted lovers and the curious, who associate it with the love story in the fifth canto of Dante’s Inferno.
During the tour you will have the opportunity to admire the interior of the fortress and in particular to enter Francesca’s room, one of the most evocative environments of the fortress, capable of evoking feelings that move the hearts of everyone.
The journey then proceeds to the Onferno site with a visit to its caves.
Not everyone knows that these evocative caves were the source of inspiration for Dante Alighieri when he wrote several cantos of the Inferno cantica of the Divine Comedy. We will walk through them together from top to bottom imagining we are in Dante’s Inferno: you will have the chance to associate Minos’ throne with a real place, feel the wind in your face rising from below reminiscent of the lustful wind mentioned by Dante, imagine the harpies of canto thirteen, and much more.
The tour will continue with a visit to the city of Ravenna, which is defined as the last refuge of the “Ghibellin fuggiasco“, where the poet Dante Alighieri lived the last years of his life. In fact, the city hosts the poet’s tomb, inside the Basilica of San Francesco, and the Museo Dantesco, an evocative place where you can admire the three-dimensional reconstruction of Dante’s face and the famous wooden box, in which the remains of the poet were kept for at least two centuries before his tomb was built.
In the city of Ravenna you will also visit other places linked to Dante and the characters of his work such as the House of Francesca da Polenta; the church of S. Maria in Porto, linked to the story of Pietro Peccator and the venerated Madonna Greca, up to the Civic Tower and the Traversari House, a family celebrated in canto XIV of the Purgatory.
Every day – and forever – a canto from Dante’s Comedy will be read at the Tomb: a way to celebrate the universality of Dante’s work, allowing anyone who wishes to do so to try their hand at reading one of the most illustrious works in the history of Italian culture.