Romantic period Itinerary

Culture, poetry and breathtaking panoramas

An itinerary almost entirely within the hills, passing through the southern slopes of Monte Murale, in a landscape that is charming, evocative and full of surprises.

It begins from the Castle, starting with the hilly path from the Gate of the Complex del Soccorso, i.e. from the north-eastern corner. You go up Via Byron: the trail follows the path of the walls and, passing a small wooden bridge, you will get to a clearing with an almost magical panorama. On the opposite side one finds Villa Kunkler, also known as Villa Byron, a true “literary sanctuary” that welcomed the poets Byron and Shelley and their wives, becoming theatre of their literary and sentimental vicissitudes. Following Via Palazzo del Principe, the road begins to rise and run alongside a pine forest. Continuing on this road, we reach Palazzo del Principe.

At the side of the entrance gate stands the Oratory of the Madonna della Pace or degli Ulivi, a little church that is currently deconsecrated. Our walk can continue just a little longer until reaching the town of Calaone, another place linked to the world of poetry because it was the birthplace of Magagnò, sixteenth-century poet, in addition to having been a meeting place of poets in Provençal language, among them Sordello da Goito and Aimeric de Peguilhan; or we can descend on the Trail of the Prince and reach the Cathedral, where the uncorrupted body of Beata Beatrice is preserved: the noblewoman from Este who was the muse of the troubadours that in the 1200s gathered at the Court of Azzo VI d’Este. A few steps away you will reach Villa Albrizzi: in the mid 1900s it was visited by many English painters and English writers, including Bruce Chatwin, who animated the halls talking about art and literature.