Seven-hundred and fifty years ago, in the spring, Dante Alighieri was born in Florence. Now, in the spring of 2015, the Museo Casa di Dante is celebrating this anniversary, which coincides with the fiftieth anniversary of the museum, with a short documentary telling the story through the light-hearted, merry eyes of two girls, the poet’s contemporaries, who find themselves flung into the frenetic Florence of our own day. Stefano Massini wote the script, and the museum entrusted the artistic part of the project to the theatre school Calenzano Teatro FormAzione, while the technical portion was handled by a pair of video and audio professionals. Enchanted by the freshness of the images, we watch our girls fall asleep as the Middle Ages are waning, amid the colors of a country
meadow, then awaken abruptly in the apparently tranquil setting of a park in the middle of the modern city. We smile as they are frightened by a passing bus and as they marvel at the imposing statue of that very Dante whom they had left in the past, intent on writing who knows what long poem. Our girls accompany viewers through the stone streets of the historic center of Florence, past the palaces and along the banks of the Arno. Thanks to the many shots taken from the girls’ point of view, ideal for transmitting the thrill of discovery of views and sensations, Florentia almost steals the show from the girls. Only as the sun is setting, escorted by a man in period costume encountered by chance, do they cross the threshold of the home of their fellow townsman Dante, now, unbeknown to them, transformed into the well-known museum of Dante’s house.