La Turbie

Description

In Canto III of Purgatorio, Turbia is named as the western boundary of the Ligurian coast, paired with Lerici, situated at the eastern edge of the Gulf of La Spezia. The pairing of the two extremes serves to indicate the entire extent of the stretch of mountainous coast between La Spezia and Nice, a route that was at the time very difficult and well known to travelers and merchants heading to France. Such steepness is measured, in Virgil's speech, in comparison to the steep stairway that the two pilgrims must face in order to climb the mountain of Purgatory: even the path between Lerice and Turbìa, defined as the most deserted and broken ruin, would be an easy passage compared to that ascent. The same rhetorical device, indicating an entire territory through its extreme places, occurs elsewhere in the Commedia.