Cacume

Description

Cacume appears in the Purgatorio (IV 26) in a simile with which Dante illustrates the steepness of the staircase that the two pilgrims must face, comparing it to earthly places well known for their difficult accessibility. The note to verse 25 of the same canto clarifies the sense of the comparison: on earth there exist similar places – observes Dante – very difficult to climb, but one can go up them on foot, whereas here one must fly. San Leo, explicitly mentioned in the note, is described as a small city in the duchy of Urbino that stood, and still stands, on the top of a very steep hill, dominated by an ancient castle, reachable in Dante's time only by a narrow path cut into the rock.