During, while Dante…
We all know the great poet Dante Alighieri: his Comedy, his literary works about the Italian language and politics.
Few people know Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri: his first home, his first love, the journey that will take him to Florence, his political and socio-cultural mission… his human face. We will leave from San Miniato’s church in Pagnolle, through the hills surrounding Florence to go down to Villa il Garofalo, his beloved private residence, arriving in republican Florence between the mid-thirteenth and the first half of the fourteenth century, its political events and internal struggles for the seizure of power before the Medici triumph.
We will get to know the rich and varied world of the guilds of the arts: its intrigues and its popular patronage before the overwhelming economic power of the Medici changed the city of Florence in a spectacular way. We will get excited in the places that have seen Durante “man”, protagonist of his time, fighting to prove not only to himself but also to his family that he’s the man “that counts” in Florence”.
In the end we will see that all his Effort will not be repaid in an adequate manner but instead it will look ineffective and almost harmful to the intent that Durante man had moved in order to obtain a respectable social position. In short, it will be possible to “taste” what really made an intellectual, politician, poet and philosopher turn into a real literary work, becoming famous all over the world.
San Miniato in Pagnolle
The little church is situated in Monterloro, about 300 metri from the villa of the Portinari Family, where Beatrice was from, and about 500 metri from Alighieri’s residence, Dante’s home. This church seems to be where Dante and Beatrice met for the first time when they were “kids” which will mark the historical and true love story of the poet she will be the real inspiration for his poetry and literary production.Villa il Garofalo
Villa that certainly hosted the Alighieri and also the Portinari family, as welcome guests, and their daughter Beatrice: greatest inspirational muse as well as Dante’s first love who was never forgotten, even after his untimely death , a true “architect” and “engine”of the poet’s journey of redemption through the world “beyond”. A part of the villa called “ Magione degli Alghieri” offers the possibility to stay short or long periods of time. Visit the villa’s website
Casa di Dante
Dante himself wrote that his birth took place in the shadow of the Badia Fiorentina under the parish of San Martino even though there is no certainty that today’s building is the same one that housed the young Dante in his youth and maturity. The original building ,that was situated in Piazza San Martino next to the Castagna tower (the first meeting place of the Priors of Florence until 1282, the year of construction of the Palazzo dei Priori known today as Palazzo Vecchio) is indicated as a destroyed building ( Also all this without any certainty) .Orsanmichele
The church of Orsanmichele, known as the church of San Michele in the garden, was a loggia originally built to accommodate the market of grains. Later it was transformed into a church of the Arts to centralize the headquarters of the various Florentine guilds that represented real public authorities before the Medici advent of power.