Purgatories

Canto IV of Dante’s Purgatorio. Dante’s trying to describe the mountain of Purgatory:

Vassi in Sanleo e discendesi in Noli,
montasi su Bismantova in cacume
con esso i piè; ma qui convien ch’om voli;

dico con l’ale snelle e con le piume
del gran disio, di retro a quel condotto
che speranza mi dava e facea lume’

Or:

One goes to Sanleo and descends to Noli,
one climbs the summit of Bismantova
with his feet; but here one must fly;

I mean with slender wings and the feathers
of great desire, following that guide
who gave me hope and gave me light.

Gerald Davis gives us this as:

San Leo (source)

Noli (source)

Bismantova (source)

I’d like to visit some day. It may have looked bleaker in Dante’s day:

At the time he saw it, Pietra di Bismantova probably looked even more barren than it does today, because of the intensive deforestation that took place in the surrounding area at the time. In recent decades, the area around the rock has been reforested as a result of the abandonment of local agriculture and a different use of forest resources.