Strolling around Florence, it is easy to come across numerous commemorative plaques placed on the walls of palaces, churches and tower-houses. Many of these are Dante's plaques, real commemorative monuments that, for more than a century now, have adorned the historic center, transporting us back, as if by magic, to 14th-century Florence, celebrated in Dante's Divine Comedy.
The project of the plaques dates back to the beginning of the 20th century, when a commission of historians and Dante scholars undertook a long research to identify the exact places mentioned in the various cantos of Dante's Comedy. The plaques were placed as early as 1907, and in 1913, they were illustrated for the first time in Ida Riedisser's English publication 'Inscriptions from Dante's Divine Comedy in the Streets of Florence', designed for the city's foreign visitors.
Following this itinerary - thanks to these veritable “talking stones” - citizens and tourists will be able to retrace places and historical events where Dante was often a protagonist, and which also highlight the difficult relationship he had with his native city. In fact, each plaque contains a quotation from one of the three cantica: 9 from the Inferno, 5 from the Purgatorio and 19 from the Paradiso, for a total of 33 plaques, which refer to places in the city, real events and illustrious citizens of the time.
Below, we illustrate each stage of this itinerary. Besides the specific quotations, all the plaques are accompanied by brief comments and photos to help you discover places, people and events mentioned in the Divine Comedy.
For further information, see the itineraries Florence at the time of Dante and the Florentine tower-houses.
Via de' Tornabuoni 1, Firenze
Piazza del Pesce, Firenze
Ponte Vecchio, Firenze
Via Por Santa Maria 15r, Firenze
P.za della Signoria, Firenze
Borgo dei Greci 29, Firenze
Via del Proconsolo 17R, Firenze
Via Dante Alighieri 1, Firenze
Via Dante Alighieri 2, Firenze
Via del Corso, Firenze
Via del Corso 6, Firenze
Via del Corso 31r, Firenze
Via del Corso 18, Firenze
Via dei Cerchi, Firenze
Via dei Tavolini, Firenze
Via dei Tavolini 8, Firenze
Via delle Oche 35r, Firenze
Via delle Oche 20r, Firenze
Piazza del Duomo 20, Firenze
Piazza di San Giovanni, Firenze
Piazza San Giovanni, Firenze
Via de' Cerretani, 39r, Firenze
Via degli Speziali 11R, Firenze
Via dei Lamberti 20r, Firenze
Via dei Calzaiuoli 11r, Firenze
Borgo Santi Apostoli, Firenze
Piazza Piave, Firenze
Via di S. Salvatore Al Monte, Firenze
Piazza di S. Salvi, Firenze
Via dei Giandonati 12, Firenze
