The Way of Dante

14 is the number of routes and pilgrim ways which cross Emilia-Romagna, linking it with the rest of Europe and with Rome for a total of 2000 km.

The route called Cammino di Dante (The way of Dante) retraces the old roads and medieval paths which linked Romagna to Tuscany, Ravenna to Florence and constituted the stages of the life of Italy’s most famous poet, Dante Alighieri. Originally from Florence, Dante spent the last days of his life in exile in Ravenna, where he finished his masterpiece – the Divine Comedy – and was buried.

Length: 395 km Ravenna – Florence – Ravenna

Bagnacavallo pays his tribute to Dante with a commemorative plaque of the facade of Palazzo Vecchio in the main square. The plaque quotes Dante’s comment on Bagnacavallo from the Divine Comedy:

“Bagnacaval does well: it breeds no more— / and Castrocaro ill, and Conio worse, / for it insists on breeding counts so cursed.” (Purgatory, Canto 14)

In the quote Dante praises the town for the extinction of the members of its most important family, the counts Malvicini, which consisted of only 3 female heirs in 1300. In Dante’s opinion, the extinction was a blessing for the town because it would bring to an end the moral corruption rooted in the family and handed down in the noble families of Castrocaro or Conio (a citadel near Imola).


At our hotel we could not miss the chance of paying our tribute to the great poet too. The room White Rose takes its name not only from the number of rose gardens present in the area but also from Dante’s verses. In these verses, the poet describes Paradise as a rose-shaped amphitheater where, among the hoard of saints, he can spot Saint Francis of Assisi.