Love, Blood and Exile: A Self-Guided Dante Tour

This self-guided walking tour traces the three forces that defined Dante Alighieri's life: love, blood, and exile, through the medieval streets of Florence where he lived, governed, and was condemned. The tour starts at the Baptistery of San Giovanni, the building Dante called his beautiful San Giovanni and dreamed of returning to until his death. You'll pass the Torre della Pagliazza, one of Florence's oldest towers, and the church linked to Beatrice Portinari. Along the way, learn how guild membership gave Dante political status, how a broken marriage promise sparked factional violence, and how a murder at Ponte Vecchio began Florence's civil wars. At the Bargello, you'll hear the charges that exiled Dante and the death sentence issued when he refused to return. The tour ends at Dante's statue outside Santa Croce, where his empty cenotaph inside raises a question the city never answered: can it truly reclaim the man it refused to welcome home?