Monte Falterona

Description

In the fourteenth canto of the Purgatorio Dante recalls Falterona as the place where the Arno is born, described as a small stream just issued from the Tuscan spring. The verse «un fiumicel che nasce in Falterona» places the mountain in the Casentino, the region of the upper Valdarno situated between Florence and Arezzo, which is discussed in the notes to canto V in relation to the battle of Campaldino. The notes to canto XIV, devoted entirely to the context in which the verse occurs, indirectly confirm the reference to the small watercourse that descends from the mountain, identified with the Arno. Falterona is thus evoked by Dante as the point of origin of the river that flows through Florence and Tuscany.