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Heaven & Hell in Dante’s Italy - The Divine Comedy in text and art, from Florence to Ravenna
8
days
from
£4,320
Book today with a deposit from
£648
18th - 25th April 2027
Tour highlights
- See the art that shaped Dante’s own vision of the afterlife, from the 13th-century mosaics of Florence’s Baptistery to those of Ravenna, and discover the art it inspired in turn.
- Private viewings in some of Italy’s greatest libraries of printed editions of the 'Divine Comedy', many beautifully illustrated.
- Banished from his native Florence Dante wrote the 'Divine Comedy' in exile. This tour follows his path – through Florence, Orvieto, Pisa and Bologna – to Ravenna, where he died, and where his vision of Heaven, Purgatory and Hell took shape.
- Two lecturers, two disciplines: a former British Library curator traces the Comedy’s journey from manuscript to print, while an art historian unpicks its visual afterlife across five centuries.
The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri is the pre-eminent work of Italian literature, and one of the cornerstones of the Western canon. Dante’s structure of the afterlife endures in the popular imagination today, and by writing in his native Tuscan rather than Latin, he helped establish the standardised Italian language. Begun c.1308, the poem was completed in 1321, shortly before Dante’s death in Ravenna – one of several places he lived after being exiled from Florence during the Guelph-Ghibelline conflict, the long struggle between supporters of the Pope and of the Holy Roman Emperor that split Florentine politics for generations.
In the 800 years since, the Commedia has lost none of its power. It remains compulsory reading in Italian secondary schools, and many Italians can still recite its opening lines, or the poem’s most famous passages, by heart. Yet no manuscript survives in Dante’s own hand; the earliest fragments date from the second half of the 1300s. As printing developed in Italy in the 15th and 16th centuries the text became more standardised, and both manuscripts and early printed editions are richly illustrated, each bearing the individual hand of its maker. Artists have returned to the poem ever since – most famously William Blake and Gustave Doré in the 19th century, and Salvador Dalí in the 20th – drawn by the vivid, specific punishments of Dante’s hell, which offered fertile material for church and chapel decoration across Italy. Some of the very artworks that shaped Dante’s own vision of heaven, hell and purgatory still survive in the buildings he knew.
This tour keeps both text and image in view throughout. We visit several of Italy’s most significant libraries to see early manuscripts and printed editions of the Comedy, and – travelling from Orvieto to Ravenna via Florence, Pisa and Bologna – we see some of the most celebrated depictions of heaven and hell in Italian art, always returning to Dante’s poem as the most influential vision of the afterlife the West has produced.
Itinerary
Fly at c. 10.45am from London Rome Fiumicino (British Airways). Drive to Tuscania, where the church of Santa Maria Maggiore contains a 14th-century fresco of the Last Judgement, attributed to Gregorio & Donato d’Arezzo. Overnight in Orvieto, a hilltop town above the Umbrian plain.
Spend the morning at the glistening marble Gothic cathedral. Among its treasures are the low relief sculptures by Maitani and the apocalyptic Last Judgement frescoes by Signorelli (1499–1502). Drive to Florence, where the following four nights are spent.
The Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze is the largest public library in Italy, and one of the country’s two centrale libraries. It holds one of the most interesting copies of the great 1481 Florence printed edition of the Divine Comedy, and a wide range of manuscripts and other editions. The afternoon is devoted to S. Maria Novella, the Dominican church with many works of art, including Nardo di Cione’s frescoes of Hell, the Last Judgement, and Paradise, in the Cappella Strozzi di Mantova, and Andrea di Bonaiuto’s Descent into Limbo as part of his cycle of frescoes in the Spanish Chapel.
All day excursion to Pisa. The ‘Campo dei Miracoli’ is a Romanesque ensemble of cathedral, monumental burial ground, campanile (‘Leaning Tower’) and baptistery, all of gleaming white marble. Among the artworks here is Buonamico Buffalmacco’s 14th-century fresco cycle in the Monumental Camposanto, which includes The Last Judgement & Hell.
The cluster of cathedral buildings occupies the morning. In the polychromatic marble Duomo itself, capped by Brunelleschi’s massive dome, Domenico di Michelino’s painting Dante Alighieri with Florence and the Realms of the Divine Comedy was commissioned in 1465, for the bicentenary of Dante’s birth. The baptistry’s 13th-century mosaic of the Last Judgement heavily influenced Dante’s vivid depiction of the afterlife. In the afternoon, visit Michelangelo’s Laurentian Library, whose architectural components would herald the onset of Mannerism, and which holds several of the most important early illuminated manuscripts of the poem.
In Bologna, the Archiginnasio was once the main building of the University of Bologna (the oldest university in continuous operation in the world), and houses a restored 17th-century anatomical theatre, and a library, which has a wide collection of Dante manuscripts and printed books. The Basilica di San Petronio has a cycle of frescoes depicting Heaven and Hell by Giovanni da Modena. Drive to Ravenna, where the final two nights of the tour are spent.
The morning is spent at the Biblioteca Classense, in the former Camaldolese Monastery, and which holds a large collection of editions of the works related to Dante. The afternoon is free. In the evening there is a private visit to the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, lined with 5th-century mosaics, and the centrally planned church of S. Vitale with 6th-century mosaics of Emperor Justinian and Empress Theodora.
The Basilica di Sant’Apollinare Nuovo, Theodoric’s Palatine church, includes mosaics depicting scenes such as Christ enthroned in splendour, and has a small permanent exhibition exploring the inspiration Dante took from the mosaics throughout Ravenna. See also Dante’s Tomb, where after a tumultuous history, the poet’s remains now rest where he died, in Ravenna and still in exile. En route to the airport stop at Classe, to see the Basilica of S. Apollinare before flying from Bologna to London Heathrow, arriving
c. 9.15pm.
Expert speakers
Dr Michael Douglas-Scott
Dr Michael Douglas-Scott mixes scholarship with accessible discourse, with reasoned opinion, and is highly sought-after as an art history lecturer. He has lectured for New York University (London campus) and Birkbeck College, University of London, specialising primarily in 16th-century Italian art and architecture. He studied at the Courtauld and Birkbeck College and lived in Rome for several years. He has written articles for Arte Veneta, Burlington Magazine and the Journal of the Warburg & Courtauld Institutes.
More tours led by Dr Michael Douglas-Scott
Mr Stephen Parkin
Curator of the British Library’s Printed Heritage Collections 1450–1600, and specialist in early printing in Italy. He studied at Cambridge University and University College London, has a qualification in librarianship from the Vatican Library School in Rome, and taught in Italian universities for many years. He has a particular interest in the history of bibliography and collecting and has published in these fields; he also works as a literary translator. He most recently curated the exhibition Aldo Manuzio. Il Rinascimento di Venezia at the Accademia in Venice.
More tours led by Mr Stephen Parkin
Practicalities
Price, per person. Two sharing: £4,530 or £4,320 without flights. Single occupancy: £5,230 or £5,020 without flights.
Travel by private coach; hotel accommodation; breakfasts, 4 dinners with wine, water, coffee; all admissions; all taxes; all tips; the services of two lecturers and a tour manager.
Emme Palace Hotel, Orvieto: A smart and modern newly renovated 4-star hotel, situated in the historic centre of Orvieto. Hotel Santa Maria Novella: a delightful, renovated 4-star hotel in a very central location. Palazzo Bezzi, Ravenna: a 4-star superior hotel, located on the edge of the historic centre of town. Single occupancy rooms are doubles for sole use.
There is inevitably quite a lot of walking and standing on this tour. Some of the walking is uphill or over cobbles. The coach cannot be used within the town centres, the tour would not be suitable for anyone who has any difficulties with everyday walking or stair-climbing, or standing for long periods of time in the libraries and churches. Some days have a lot of driving, and while the days based entirely in Florence and Ravenna have none, there is more walking on these days. Average distance by coach per day on driving days: 96 miles.
Between 10 and 22 participants
Before booking, please refer to the FCDO website and Travel Health Pro to ensure you are happy with the travel advice for the destination(s) you are visiting.
Dates & prices
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2027
Date
Speaker
Price
Date:
18th - 25th April 2027
Speaker:
Dr Michael Douglas-Scott & Mr Stephen Parkin
Price:
from £4,320
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