• Dante tour from Tuscany to Romagna, from the hill to the sea -

Dante tour from Tuscany to Romagna, from the hill to the sea

DAY 1
Arrival in Florence - Hotel Bella Firenze
On the first day, you will arrive in Florence. Recommended arrival by train since the hotel is located near the train station S.M. Novella.
After the check-in, in the early afternoon, there will be a meeting with "Dante" (guide dressed as Supreme Poet). It will start from Piazza Santa Maria Novella. During this guided tour you will walk through the district of San Pancrazio, discovering Via dell'Inferno and Via del Purgatorio. After passing through Piazza Santa Trinita and Piazzetta del Limbo, you will reach the tower houses of Buondelmonti and Adimari, families that originated the hatred between Guelphs and Ghibellines. The visit will end on the Ponte Vecchio.
Free dinner in typical restaurants in Florence.

DAY 2
Walking tour of Florence
On the second day, after breakfast, we will walk towards the Baptistery. During this particular guided tour we will pay homage to the Supreme Poet discovering many of the 34 marble tombstones, located in the historic center, which bear different tercets of the Divine Comedy inherent in the city of Giglio. We will end the visit in the backyard of Palazzo Vecchio in Piazza della Signoria.
Free time for lunch (in a typical restaurant or packed lunch).
You will walk again, until you reach Piazza Santa Croce, under the statue of Dante. During this guided tour you will discover the district of Dante, stopping in front of the Torre della Castagna, the Dante's house museum and the church of S. Margherita dei Cerchi. He will finish his visit in front of the Baptistery, remembered by Dante as "my beautiful San Giovanni".
Free time for dinner.

DAY 3
Brisighella Train and Walking Tour
On the third day, after breakfast, you will reach the railway station S.M. Novella and by train you will leave for Faenza with a stop in Brisighella. Here, there will be the guide waiting for tourists to accompany them in the center of the village.
Free time for lunch (in a typical restaurant or packed lunch).
Afterwards, a guided tour in Brisighella with a stop for a tasting of Olio Brisighello and a visit to a farm.
After the guided tour, you will get back on the train to reach Faenza. Once arrived, there will be bicycles waiting for participants, to reach the B&B Fondo Riso (about 1 km).
Dinner in a typical restaurant in the center of Faenza, which can be reached by bike (about 1.5 km).

DAY 4
Faenza - Lugo KM 50 easy (country roads)
Starting from Faenza by bike along the Naviglio canal (rich in history) you will discover the Faenza countryside. In spring, you will enjoy the view and the scents of peaches in bloom. Afterwards, you will reach the "Bassa Romagna", passing on white roads, away from traffic. There will be the opportunity to taste the Bursòn, a fine local wine.
The stage will end in Lugo, town of Francesco Baracca, well-known aviator.
Accommodation and dinner at Hotel Ala d'Oro in Lugo.


Faenza in the Divine Comedy
Tebaldello Zambrasi (1230-1240 - 1282) was an Italian nobleman.
Belonging to a Ghibelline family, on 13 November 1280 he betrayed his city, opening its doors at night to the Bolognese of the Geremei family, apparently to take revenge for an offense received by the Lambertazzi Ghibellines (also from Bologna)They had taken refuge in Faenza after being banned in their own city.
He died in 1282 attacking Forlì in the battle where the Ghibellines led by Guido da Montefeltro managed to beat the French troops sent by the pope to conquer one of the last Ghibelline enclaves in Italy. Dante Alighieri placed him in the ninth circle of Hell, in the Antenora, among the traitors of the homeland (Inf. XXXII 122) citing him as the one who "aprì Faenza mentre si dormia".

DAY 5
Lugo - Marina Romea KM 55 easy (white and secondary roads)
Departure by bike, you will pass through the streets of Bassa Romagna, rich in history and also mentioned in the Divine Comedy. Passing through Bagnacavallo, mentioned in the Divine Comedy: the counts of Cunio are mentioned in the Divine Comedy, in the Canto XIV of Purgatory, in the frame of the envious:
«Ben fa Bagnacaval, che non rifiglia;
e mal fa Castrocaro, e peggio Conio
che di figliar tai conti più s'impiglia»»

Once you reach Alfonsine, you will stop to taste typical local products and then skirt the valleys of Comacchio and the Rhine till the sea. The stage will end in Marina Romea, a strip of land between the sea and the magnificent Pialassa Baiona.
The arrival is expected around 17 hours and will follow a tour by boat to admire the pink flamingos at sunset.
Accommodation and dinner in Hotel 3*

Along the valleys of Comacchio, you can think of Dante... his story:
The Comacchio Valleys were born around the tenth century due to the lowering of the soil (subsidence) and the swamping of the coastal area on the border between Emilia and Romagna. Initially the valleys were filled with fresh water, which came from the recurrent flooding and overflowing of nearby rivers. Starting from the 16th century they were progressively infiltrated by the sea water of the Adriatic Sea and this phenomenon led to their transformation, which still remains, in brackish valleys. The Valleys were formed during the Early Middle Ages by progressive swamping of the territories that were between the two main branches of the Po Delta at the time: the Po of Volano in the north (near Ferrara) and the Po of Primaro in the south (near Argenta, which also flowed the Rhine). The gradual disengagement of the Rhine River, barred by its own debris, created a vast marshy area even south of the Po di Primaro (the Padusa Valley).
At the same time, a series of unregulated floods (starting with the Ficarolo route of 1152) as well as the earthquake of 1570 and the Taglio di Porto Viro of 1604, moved the main course of the Po northwards, in its current riverbed, decreasing the water flow of the Po di Volano and the Po di Primaro and thus preventing the progressive burial debris of the current Valli di Comacchio. Dante Alighieri probably contracted malaria there during the return trip from Ravenna.

DAY 6
Marina Romea - Ravenna KM 40 easy (white roads, pinewood and secondary roads)
Departure by bike along the shore in the shade of the pinewoods between bays, lagoons and paleoalvei Po, you reach the Pinewood of Classe.
Quotes of the Pineta di Classe:
Divina Commedia
The pine forest of Classe is mentioned by Dante Alighieri, in the Divine Comedy, canto XXVIII of Purgatory (vv. 19-21):
«tal qual di ramo in ramo si raccoglie per la pineta in su 'l lito di Chiassi, quand'Ëolo scilocco fuor discioglie».
Decamerone
The pinewood is also mentioned and described in the Decamerone by Giovanni Boccaccio, in the eighth novella of the fifth day, which has as its protagonist Nastagio degli Onesti. Boccaccio writes that Nastagio: «di Ravenna uscì e andossene ad un luogo forse tre miglia fuor di Ravenna, che si chiama Chiassi».

Nastagio inadvertently ventures into the pine forest:
piede innanzi piè sé medesimo trasportò, pensando, infino nella pigneta. Ed essendo già passata presso che la quinta ora del giorno, ed esso bene un mezzo miglio per la pigneta entrato».
Here she witnesses the key scene of the novel: the hunting and killing of a young woman by a nobleman who chases her on horseback. The episode is depicted in four famous plates by Botticelli, also set in the Pineta di Classe

Leaving the pinewood, you reach Ravenna and the Tomb of Dante:
Dante Alighieri, or Alighiero, baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and also known by the name Dante, of the Alighieri family (Florence, between 21 May and 21 June 1265 - Ravenna, night between 13 and 14 September 1321)He was an Italian poet, writer and politician. The name "Dante", according to the testimony of Jacopo Alighieri, is a hypochoristic of Durante; in the documents it was followed by the patron Alagherii or the gentilizio de Alagheriis, while the variant Alighieri was affirmed only with the advent of Boccaccio.
He is considered the father of the Italian language; his fame is mainly due to the authorship of Comedia, which has become famous as Divine Comedy and universally considered the greatest work written in Italian and one of the greatest masterpieces of world literature. Expression of medieval culture, filtered through the lyric of the Dolce stil novo, the Comedy is also an allegorical vehicle of human salvation, which is concrete in touching the dramas of the damned, the purgatory punishments and the heavenly glories, allowing Dante to offer the reader an insight into morality and ethics.
Important linguist, political theorist and philosopher, Dante spawned within the human knowledge, deeply marking the Italian literature of the following centuries and the Western culture itself, so much so as to be nicknamed the "Poet" or, par excellence, the "Poet". Dante, whose remains are located at the tomb in Ravenna built in 1780 by Camillo Morigia, has become one of the symbols of Italy in the world, thanks to the name of the main institution for the dissemination of the Italian language, the Dante Alighieri Society, while critical and philological studies are kept alive by Dante's Society.
Beginning in the 20th century and in the early 21st century, Dante became part of mass culture, while his work and figure inspired the world of comics, manga, video games and literature. In Italy, finally, it was established by the government and parliament that March 25 is the day aimed at the worship of Dante in schools and in civil society, establishing the so-called Dantedì from 2020.

Free time for dinner in a typical restaurantof Ravenna.
Accommodaton in 3* Hotel.

DAY 7
Ravenna
The seventh day is free (shopping, guided tours on request), according to the return times.
Return by train (transfers available on demand).

 

€ 780 (15% discount for children under 14)

Minimum number: 8 participants

The price includes:

- 6 nights
- 6 breakfasts
- 4 dinners
- 1 wine tasting / lunch
- 1 lunch in a typical restaurant
- Guide for tours of Florence
- Brisighella tour guide and "Olio Brisighello" farm tour
- 1 boat tour to see flamingos and swans
- Tour of the Raf Museum in Fusignano
- 1 bike guide for assistance
- Luggage transport from the fourth day (Faenza)
- Rent a muscolar bike

 

Surcharges:
- double room for single use € 195,50
- e-bike € 60,00