The Pietra di Bismantova is not just any mountain. The massive rock’s flat shape is so particular, as it rises, majestic, solitary, from the surrounding plains in Emilia-Romagna, that Dante Alighieri is said to have been inspired by it for the description of the Purgatory in his Divine Comedy. 

It is said that ‘the supreme poet’ visited the area in 1306, during a trip from Padua to Lunigiana in Tuscany. Dante imagined the 'steps' taken to enter Purgatory as the steep side of this spectacular limestone cliff. At the time, the rock must have looked even more barren, due to the intensive deforestation taking place in the surrounding area. In recent decades, the abandonment of local agriculture and a different use of forest resources has contributed to reforesting the mountain, and the vegetation has hidden part of the rock and its paths.