The Via Dante and the Piazza Donati are close by, and in the Via Dante are many reminders of the poet besides his alleged birthplace.

Elsewhere in the city we find incised quotations from his poem; but the Baptistery--his "beautiful San Giovanni"-- is the only building in the city proper now remaining which Dante would feel at home in could he return to it, and where we can feel assured of sharing his presence.

The same pavement is there on which his feet once stood, and on the same mosaic of Christ above the altar would his eyes have fallen.

When Dante was exiled in 1302 the cathedral had been in progress only for six or eight years; but it is known that he took the deepest interest in its construction, and we have seen the stone marking the place where he sat, watching the builders.

The facade of the Badia of Fiesole and the church of S.Miniato can also remember Dante; no others.
Here, however, we are on that ground which is richest in personal associations with him and his, for in spite of re-building and certain modern changes the air is heavy with antiquity in these narrow streets and passages where the poet had his childhood and youth.