The stone where he sat

Set into the wall is a stone with an inscription calling this Dante's seat. He is said to have sat here watching the cathedral being built, work that had only just begun during his lifetime.

Nobody can prove it, and that is exactly why it makes such a good story. Florentines have been telling it for centuries. A passerby once asked him here what the best food in the world was, and he answered: an egg. A year later the same man came back and asked with what, and without looking up Dante said: with salt.

What the stone really shows is that the city went on seeing him as a neighbour, someone with a place to sit and a joke that belongs to him.

The eight-sided building facing the cathedral's front is our next stop.