Siena is preparing to celebrate Dante

Siena is preparing to celebrate Dante with a full calendar of events that will unfold throughout the year, featuring guided tours, exhibitions and lectures, as well as the cleaning of the Dante plaques in the historic city center. “Siena for Dante” is the series of events organized by the Municipality of Siena with the Mps Foundation, Università di Siena, Università per Stranieri, Accademia Chigiana and Dante 2021, the national committee for the celebrations of the seven hundred years since the death of the Supreme Poet. Aside from Florence, Siena is the city that’s most frequently mentioned by Dante, therefore Siena feels like a fully-fledged “City of Dante”.

The program of events

The program, which is set to start in May, also includes the exhibition titled “Painters in Siena for Dante”, created by the University of Siena, with the inauguration scheduled for July. A series of guided tours will be organized by Sienese tourist guides that can be carried out both on foot and by bike, promoting slow tourism. There will also be performances by the Chigiana, who will revisit “Dantesche” music. The events are part of the cultural project entitled “Siena City of Dante – A city on display” curated by Alessandro Leoncini and Gaia Ravalli, co-organized by the Municipality of Siena and the University.

The program also includes a collaboration with the Biblioteca Comunale degli Intronati, which involves the creation of four short videos that will be shot in places in the city that are mentioned in Dante’s verses. Additionally, there will be a collaboration with the cultural association Culter, based in Florence, for the organization of a cycle of readings of the most significant verses of the Divine Comedy in the streets of Siena and from the Torre del Mangia, inspired by Carmelo Bene, taking place in September 2021.

The cleaning of the Dante plaques

Among the planned initiatives is the cleaning of the Dante plaques that adorn the historic center with verses from the Divine Comedy, that now have the opportunity to be enhanced. There are eight marble plaques placed on some historic buildings of the city, situated there in 1921 on the occasion of the celebrations for the 600th anniversary of the poet’s death.