City of Dante walking tour and a steak dinner to remember

(This is part of our series of posts from our six-week Road Scholar Independent Living and Learning in Florence trip to Italy in Spring 2025. We have an index to all the posts from that trip here.)

Following our walk through the Vasari Corridor, we met up with our Road Scholar art history guide Nicoletta for a walking tour through the oldest part of Florence, which was where poet Dante Alighieri once lived.

This alleyway shows off the contrast between medieval-era buildings at the edge of the oldest part of the city, on the right, and more “modern” construction (only several hundred years old!) on the left.

Via dei Cerchi, a narrow road that was once home to the fabric merchants of Florence.

In medieval times, the standard unit of measurement of length was the Braccio Fiorentino, or “Florentine Arm”, correpondening to 58.36 centimeters in modern units. A bronze bar of this length was set into the stone wall of the Via dei Cerchi so that merchants could measure out fabric for their customers.

Produce vendor’s stall in Via dei Cerchi.

Near the original location of Dante’s home on Via Dante Alighieri.

Quotes from Dante’s writings adorn the walls in the area.

Inside the Oratorio (chapel) of the Buonomini di San Martino. The Buonomini is a voluntary association of Catholic men founded in 1441 to help Florentine families that had fallen on hard times but were ashamed to ask for charity. Today, the Buonomini continue to assist those in need by distributing funds allocated for that purpose by the city.

The late 15th-century frescoes inside the building depict stories of Saint Martino and his charitable works.

This map shows places in the center of Florence that would have been familiar to Dante during his lifetime. The Bargello (once a government building, but a museum today) is at the left. Next to that is the Badìa Fiorentina, an abbey and church. Dante’s home (“Casa di Dante”) is in the middle, and the Baptistry of San Giovanni is at the right. Although the Baptistry is now part of the Duomo complex, the Cathedral and Giotto’s Bell Tower aren’t shown because they had not yet been built at that time.

A puddle of water reveals Dante’s distincitive profile embedded in the paving stone of the street. Without water on it, it’s nearly invisible.

A bust of Dante on the wall outside his home. The City of Florence bought the site in 1907 and rebuilt the home as a museum.

The Chiesa di Santa Margherita dei Cerchi, also known as “Dante’s Church”, may have been where the poet marred Gemma Donati, and first saw his beloved Beatrice Portinari, whose family had their tombs here.

The Badìa Fiorentina, an abbey and church now home to the Monastic Communities of Jerusalem, is across the street from Dante’s home.

Interior of the Church of Santa Maria Assunta of the Badìa Fiorentina.

The Vision of Saint Bernard by Filippino Lippi (1487). Filippino was the son of painter Fra Filippo Lippi. This painting, considered to be one of Fillippino’s best works, is housed in the Badìa Fiorentina.

Outside of the Badìa Fiorentina:

The brass inlay in this street marks the original footprint of a tower that was part of the wall surrounding the Roman colony of Florentia around 30-15 BCE. Excavations during improvements to the road in 1994 revealed the ancient foundations.

We had an hour to kill between the end of our City of Dante tour and our 6:30 dinner reservations, so we enjoyed aperitivos in a piazza near the restaurant. Our wonderful waitress kept playfully flirting with Tom Eshelman.

One of the most famous regional dishes of Florence is bistecca fiorentina, or Florentine T-bone steak. Most restaurants require a minimum order of at least 1.2 kilograms, or about 2.6 pounds–far more than any one normal person could eat. So for this group dinner, eight of the 10 of us ordered the steak. We got a total of 4.5 kilos (almost 10 pounds) before cooking. The waiter brought out the thickly-cut steak so we could see it before it was cooked.

After cooking, the restaurant brought out three sizzling platters of sliced bistecca fiorentina, accompanied by roasted potatoes and grilled vegetables.

Sprinkled with flaky salt, the medium-rare bistecca fiorentina was mouthwateringly delicious.

Enjoying our steak dinner at Trattoria del Pannello.

And after dinner, the restaurant treated us to a couple rounds of limoncello! Salute!