In Dante’s footsteps. Walking the places of the Poet, amid nature, history and art.

It is from these thoughts that some passionate and willing people of our own day
wanted to trace, in the heart of the Apennines between Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna, a true
‘Dante’s Way’. A trek, if we want to use another modern term, that
could let today’s hiker relive a whole series of evocations linked to Dante, to
his life, to his work and to the medieval world in which he lived.

For those who love poetry, art and nature and have a good walking pace, the experience
of Dante’s Way is not to be missed. To be done at least once in a lifetime.
It is a direct way of coming into contact with a true and little-known Italy, of
penetrating the natural and historical heart of the Peninsula. Of seeing hidden places,
savouring almost forgotten scents and flavours, and following roads that have not been trodden for centuries.
Here are the route and its stages.

Dante’s Way

Dante’s Way runs for at least 70% on unpaved paths, mainly through
hill and mountain country. It is often in woodland, which keeps temperatures cool
even in summer, especially above 500 m.

The ascents and descents are moderate, at the pace of a good hiker. It is still
a route that crosses the Apennines, after all. Good training as an average
walker is advisable before setting out.
The best months for walking the Way are May, June, September and October.
In winter it is easy to find wide snow-covered stretches along the route.

An overview… of the most significant places

Ravenna
This is the starting point of our Way. Its early Christian monuments, including the
splendid Basilica of Sant’Apollinare in Classe, are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. (For
the Dante itinerary in Ravenna, see below).

Tuscan-Romagnol Apennines
The Tuscan-Romagnol Apennines are a web of paths and white roads, starting with
those around the countryside of Castrocaro Terme and Terra del Sole, an ancient Medici
fortress.

San Godenzo
On 8 June 1302 the Abbey of San Gaudenzio hosted the famous meeting between exiled Florentine
Ghibellines and White Guelphs, represented among others by Dante Alighieri, who aimed at
an understanding with the Ubaldini family so as to return to Florence.
Portico di Romagna
The Ponte della Maestà, of clear medieval origin, connects the village to the path known as
the ‘Castellina’.

Brisighella
The Clock Tower, built on one of the three gypsum pinnacles that dominate the village, is
one of the symbols of the Romagna town.

Casentinesi Forests
Beech woods, mountain maples and centuries-old fir forests: autumn makes the National Park even
more enchanting for those who cross it on foot.

Hermitage of Gamogna
In the Alpe di San Benedetto, at the foot of Monte Gamogna. An ancient monastic complex, of
which some original Romanesque parts remain: the cloister, the monks’ cells, the oven, the
drying rooms and the stable. The hermitage, dedicated to Saint Barnabas, was founded in 1053 by Saint Peter
Damian, Doctor of the Church and hermit monk. He is an important figure
in Dante’s Comedy: the poet places him among the contemplative spirits of the Seventh Heaven of
Saturn, and dedicates Canto XXI of Paradiso to him. Today the complex is run by the
nuns of the Monastic Fraternities of Jerusalem.

The infernal waterfall of San Benedetto in Alpe
It is one of the most famous references in Dante’s Inferno. San Benedetto in Alpe, home to
an abbey dating from the year 1000 and founded by the Benedictine monks of Cluny, is a unique
mix of nature and history. Dante knew these places, and drew inspiration from them. Above all
he was impressed by the Acquacheta waterfall, just above San Benedetto. The river
Acquacheta, a tributary of the Montone, drops here more than 70 metres, forming a
remarkable cascade.

Come quel fiume c’ ha proprio cammino
prima dal Monte Viso ’nver’ levante,
da la sinistra costa d’Apennino,



che si chiama Acquacheta suso, avante
che si divalli giù nel basso letto,
e a Forlì di quel nome è vacante,



rimbomba là sovra San Benedetto
de l’Alpe per cadere ad una scesa
ove dovea per mille esser recetto;



così, giù d’una ripa discoscesa,
trovammo risonar quell’acqua tinta,
sì che ’n poc’ora avria l’orecchia offesa.
(Inferno, XVI, vv. 94-105)

Pontassieve
This evocative village preserves a little gem of Dante’s biography. Tradition
holds that Palazzo Portinari, today a private historic residence, was the property of Folco
Portinari, the father of Dante’s famous Beatrice.

Folco – who seems to have been born in Portico di Romagna, another stage of our Way – was a
White Guelph and held important offices in the political life of the late
thirteenth century. Besides Beatrice, he had five other daughters and five sons.
Unfortunately we do not know much about Beatrice. Described by Boccaccio as delicate in appearance and at the same time grave and serious from childhood, she married the banker
Simone dei Bardi in 1287 and died three years later, in 1290.

With a little imagination, we can think that, since the Alighieri family also had
a residence in these parts, Dante and Beatrice may have met here. Perhaps near
the small and delightful church of San Miniato a Pagnolle, the perfect setting for their
platonic love: a place not to be missed during the Way.

Florence
The Dante itinerary in the Poet’s city is certainly a unique experience. It can start from the
Monument to Dante Alighieri, sculpted by Enrico Pazzi in Piazza Santa Croce, and return there
after touring the Dantean sites of the historic centre. (For further advice on a
Dante itinerary in Florence, see below).

The stages of the complete itinerary (don’t be alarmed, though!)

From Ravenna to Florence

1 Ravenna → Passo Vico km 19.0
2 Passo Vico → Oriolo dei Fichi km 18.5
3 Oriolo dei Fichi → Brisighella km 17.0
4 Brisighella → Monte Romano km 18.5
5 Monte Romano → Marradi km 14.2
6 Marradi → San Benedetto in Alpe km 23.6
7 San Benedetto in Alpe → San Godenzo km 13.2
8 San Godenzo → Dicomano km 16.6
9 Dicomano → Pontassieve km 21.0
10 Pontassieve → Florence km 20.7

From Florence to Ravenna

11 Florence → Pieve a Pitiana km 29.2
12 Pieve a Pitiana → Prato di Strada km 23.9
13 Prato di Strada → Casalino km 16.0
14 Casalino → Passo della Calla km 18.2

15 Passo della Calla → Premilcuore km 20.6
16 Premilcuore → Portico di Romagna km 9.6
17 Portico di Romagna → Dovadola km 27.5
18 Dovadola → Forlì km 22.6
19 Forlì → Passo Vico km 15.3
20 Passo Vico → Ravenna km 19.0

To each their own Way. Suggested hikes

If you were alarmed on reading the complete itinerary of Dante’s Way with its
twenty stages, don’t worry!
That is the full-immersion experience, reserved for those who want, rucksack on back and legs in training,
to spend twenty unforgettable days among cities of art, medieval roads and
unspoilt nature.
There are, however, many alternatives. For a start you can ‘break up’ the itinerary: do
part of it and then rejoin the well-stocked network of local public transport in
Tuscany and Romagna.

Or you can build your own route as you please. Here are some suggestions.

1. City weekends. Dante in Ravenna and Florence
2. Discovering the traces of the Supreme Poet in the two cities of departure and arrival,
3. Ravenna and Florence, is a game that will give you great satisfaction.
4. You will travel among works of art, precious manuscripts, places of worship, military fortresses.
5. In Ravenna, you will certainly need to start from Dante’s Tomb, recently visited also
6. by the British royals Charles and Camilla. Then you will visit the Basilica of San Francesco, among the
7. oldest churches in Ravenna (it probably arose as early as the 5th century AD and underwent numerous
8. alterations over the following centuries): it hosted Dante’s solemn funeral.
9. Then you will move on to the Dante Museum, which, with its nine rooms rich in finds and
10. multimedia works, is a journey of experience and knowledge of the human adventure, the
11. artistic story, the Comedy and Dante’s subsequent fortunes.
12. Also not to be missed is the Basilica of Santo Stefano degli Ulivi, in whose convent Dante’s daughter,
13. Antonia Alighieri, took her vows and lived as Sister Beatrice.
14. And then, passing along Via Pietro Alighieri – named after the first-born son of Dante and Gemma Donati, who lived in exile with his father and his brother Jacopo first in Verona, and then precisely in Ravenna – you can
15. reach the Casa dei Polentani. Do you remember, in Canto V of the Inferno, Francesca da
16. Polenta and her fatal love for Paolo Malatesta? Tradition has it that in this very
17. house, built around 1200 by Guido Minore da Polenta, Francesca was born.

Florence is Dante’s homeland, although he lived a good part of his life in
exile. It can therefore be said that in every corner, church or building of medieval Florence between
1200 and 1300, there is a trace, an echo of the Poet and his life.
We only suggest visiting the so-called Dante Quarter, crossing Orsanmichele
towards Piazza del Duomo and walking along Via Dante Alighieri. It is an area
characterised by a dense network of narrow streets and tower houses, such as the Torre dei Cerchi house,
in the street of the same name at the corner of Via del Corso.

Although there is no certain evidence, it is quite likely that Dante lived in this area. Indeed
here stands the Casa di Dante, a nineteenth-century replica of a tower house, in which an educational museum
on Dante, his biography and his works has been created. Not far away is the
Church of Santa Margherita dei Cerchi, where Beatrice Portinari, the inspiring muse of the
Divine Comedy, was buried.

Another place rich in Dantesque associations in Florence, and perhaps less well known, is the Monastery of the Badia Fiorentina. Founded at the end of the tenth century, it belonged to the Benedictines and was an important religious, political and commercial centre. It was here that, in Dante’s time, the Priors and magistrates of the Commune met. It was precisely in the 1280s, when Dante was a boy, that it was rebuilt in Gothic forms by Arnolfo di Cambio.

And not far from there, you will find the Bargello. It is the oldest public palace in the city and was built in 1250, fifteen years before Dante’s birth, as the palace of the Capitano del Popolo. It later became the Palazzo del Podestà, a notorious prison and finally a museum. It houses a collection of Italian sculpture unique in the world, from Donatello to Michelangelo, Verrocchio and Cellini. Among the Giotto-style frescoes of the Chapel of Mary Magdalene, you can recognise the famous portrait of Dante.

1. A week in the heart of the Apennines
2. After visiting Florence in the footsteps of Dante Alighieri, head straight to Poppi by public
3. transport. From here, after a visit to the village, you join the Way in the direction of
4. Pratovecchio and Casalino, then continue among ancient hermitages, Camaldoli above all, and
5. evocative medieval villages, such as Premilcuore and Portico di Romagna, until you arrive in
6. Forlì.
7. A week in the cities of art and historic villages
8. The starting point is Ravenna (for the city’s sightseeing itinerary see above).
9. From here, take the train to Faenza, renowned capital of artistic ceramics. From

Faenza you join the Way in the direction of Brisighella. Continue to Marradi: here you can take a train on the historic Faentina railway line to Dicomano (be careful to change at Borgo San Lorenzo). From Dicomano, passing through Pontassieve (see above), you arrive in Florence.

Weekend among nature and ancient hermitages
From Marradi, home of the Marron Buono, you set off towards the Acquacheta waterfall (see above for the description and the reference to Dante). Note: this stage on foot is no joke and needs to be planned carefully.
You can also visit the Gamogna hermitage, before reaching San Benedetto in Alpe and visiting the abbey (see above).
After a night’s rest, you resume the route as far as San Godenzo (for the connection with Dante see above); then you can head back, or continue for another day to Dicomano.