There seemed no end to the stories associated with Dante which were localised in this neighbourhood. Palmieri, a writer of the early fifteenth century, described an incident, which he says befell Dante on Campaldino. The poet and the triumphant Guelfs after the battle pursued the enemy as far as Bibbiena and beyond it, and on the third day they returned to look for their friends and to bury the dead. Dante found a friend, who either “was not quite dead or else suddenly revived,” and who proceeded to describe what he had seen during these days of Hell and Purgatory, words through which the whole plan of the _Comedy_ was revealed to Dante. The account contains expressions which recall Dante’s description, still it is sufficiently distinct. It rambles on over about half a dozen pages in print without definite plan or purpose. It was with a feeling of regret that we left Poppi, which played so important a part in the history of the district. We left it early one morning and crossed Campaldino, now, as six hundred years ago, green with sprouting corn. Beyond it the driving road over the Consuma begins its steady ascent along a mountain spur which is formed by the Arno and its tributary the Solano. The old road branched off, following the course of the Solano, and up this we went to explore. I presume that foreigners carrying knapsacks for their convenience do not often walk in these parts. We had been accosted before and asked what our _roba_ was, and women especially joined us along the road in hopes of driving a bargain in needles and scissors. In the valley of the Solano our appearance brought concern to the heart of a professional pedlar, who eyed us askance. When we came down the valley again in the afternoon we were met by a woman, who told us she had been looking out for us ever since we went past in the morning; might she see our wares? She too looked upon us as rivals of the pedlar. We found the narrow, tortuous valley of the Solano oppressive and unattractive, and we did not penetrate much beyond Strada San Niccolo, a town of high houses built close between the mountain sides. Here too the history of many centuries lay condensed, as it were, in a nutshell. The ancient church near the castle, now deserted--the ruins of the castle itself, long a stronghold of the Guidi, which the growing Commune destroyed in the fifteenth century--the modern city with its manufactories--each represented a special phase in the history of growing civilisation.