Just as Virgil guided the author of the Divine Comedy in his imagined journey through the realms of the afterlife, thus the spirit of the great Dante Alighieri accompanies visitors on this tour of his city of birth, Florence. The presence of Dante, father of the Italian language, is an important one, and can be felt in much of the Tuscan capital which, in Dante's lifetime, was animated by the conflict raging between the Guelphs and Ghibellines.
The doorway via which we commence our journey is not that which leads to Dante's inferno but rather the museum dedicated to his life and works. Despite the Museum's promising name, the Casa di Dante (House of Dante) was not where the poet lived. Nevertheless, it is located on the street identified by the poet as his main residence, and lies just a few steps away from the Church of Santa Margherita de' Cerchi where Dante married Gemma Donati. This small house of worship was apparently, where Alighieri first set eyes on Beatrice Portinari, whose father is buried in the church.
In his Divine Commedy, Dante tells the tale of Buondelmonte de' Buondelmonti, and the tragic fate which befell the man in the vicinity of one of the best known symbols of Florence, the Ponte Vecchio. It was in the Amidei tower that Buondelmonte was murdered by the Amidei, who killed him after he broke his engagement with one of the female members of the family. In Florence, this crime is often given a political rather than personal motivation: the victim and his assassin were of opposing factions: the Buondelmonti supporting the Guelphs and the Papacy and the Amidei sustaining the cause of the Ghibellines and the Holy Roman Empire. Squeezing our way between the crowds of tourists gathering on the bridge, from beneath the arches of Ponte Vecchio we can still catch a glimpse of the famous tower.
Another symbol of Florence and theater of the bitter conflict between Guelphs and Ghibellines is Florence's Piazza della Signoria. Once again, we refer to the work of Dante so as to learn of the defeat of the Uberti, influential Ghibelline family, whose houses were destroyed by the Guelphs, and replaced by the great square dominated by the Palazzo della Signoria and the Loggia dei Lanzi. Today the piazza and loggia appear like an immense open air art gallery, in which to find Benvenuto Cellini's Perseo and copies of Donatello's statues of Marzocco and Giuditta and Oloferme.
To see the original of Donatello's Marzocco we head to the Bargello, once the medieval city's court houses and now one of Florence's most impressive museums. This is where to admire a magnificent collection of artworks by Michelangelo, Luca della Robbia, Benvenuto Cellini and, of course, Donatello (whose celebrated David is also on show here). In the Bargello chapel we have the opportunity to see a likeness of Dante, painted by members of the Giotto school. Another portrait of the poet is conserved in the Strozzi Chapel inside the Church of Santa Maria Novella. Here, Alighieri is depicted as one of the elected in Nando di Cione's Last Judgement, artwork evidently inspired by Dante's epic.
