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\u201cThis Fortress, which was, for centuries, no stranger to sieges and battles, attests, in what remains of its walls \u2015today, on the six-hundredth anniversary of Dante\u2019s death\u2015the assault and escape of Scarpetta Degli Ordelaffi together with the exiled Florentines, the harsh reprisals of Fulcieri de\u2019 Calboli, in March 1303 the happy escape of Dante, and now a symbol of peace \u20261321-1921\u201d<\/p>\n
Ordelaffi<\/strong><\/a>\u2015Lord of Forl\u00ec, head of the Ghibellines in Romagna, and a man who was tied to the Ubaldini family in political faith and in his marriage to Chiara Ubaldini da Susinana\u2015departed from Montaccianico with a company of Ghibellines and White Guelphs. Dante, who was Scarpetta\u2019s protege and secretary, and who had fought in Caprona and Campaldino, was most likely also with them. The expedition of March 12, 1303 was the second of five attempts by the exiled Florentines to return to Florence after the convention of San Godenzo (1302). Fulcieri\u00a0 da Calboli, the Black Guelph and Podest\u00e0 of Florence, defeated his adversaries. In their flight to the fortress of Montaccianico, more than 500 White Guelphs were killed, taken hostage, tortured and condemned to death. STRIANO
\nAfter this event, Dante lived his exile far from the \u201cbad and foolish company\u201d with which he had been exiled, \u201cFor all ingrate, all mad and impious\/ Will they become against thee; but soon after\/ They, and not thou, shall have the forehead scarlet\u201d according to the prophetic words of his ancestor the knight Cacciaguida in Paradise Canto XVII, who alludes to the battle of Lastra (1304), and continues to state that \u201cso \u2019twill be well for thee\/ A party to have made thee by thyself\u201d, that is to say that Dante did well to distance himself from them.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>Villa Striano, just outside Pulicciano, stands on the ruins of an ancient Ubaldini<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>lookout tower. In 1875 Michele Gordigiani, portrait artist of many great queens, bought the villa. Gabriele D’Annunzio, Eleonora Duse, Arturo Toscanini, Guglielmo Marconi, Giovanni Papini, the Belgian painter De Groux, the philosopher Balbino, the violinist Joachim, and the cellist Cassad\u00f2 spent many summers here.<\/p>\n