Dante's House

In the historical Via Santa Margherita you’ll find the Dante’s House Museum, one of the most visited places in Florence.

The present-day museum incorporates two mediaeval houses that were last restored in 1911 by the architect Giuseppe Castellucci, after which the museum was opened. Inside, numerous reproductions of documents about the poet, and images and history of Florence at the time of the supreme poet can be examined. In the nearby church are buried the Portinari, the family of his beloved Beatrice, whose love he sings of in the Rhymes and in the New Life.

His political commitment alongside the white guelfs led him to direct confrontation with Pope Boniface VIII, forcing him into exile, first in Forlì and then in Verona, with Bartolomeo della Scala. Between 1304 and 1306 he composed the Convivio and the De Vulgari Eloquentia, in Latin.

His wandering lasted quite some time and brought him to Lucca, in Casentino, and then once more to Verona, and it was during this period that he composed his masterwork, the Divine Comedy. He died in 1321.


See also: Florence Guided Visit