Statua di Dante Alighieri

This guide to the Dante statue in Verona's Piazza dei Signori starts with a strange sound: workers hoisting a three-meter marble poet into place under cover of darkness in May 1865, while the city was still under Austrian rule. It traces back two years to a public contest for the commission, won by a young sculptor named Ugo Zannoni, and to the centuries-old fountain the statue replaced. It also follows the money forward, into a modern chapter of who has paid to keep Dante's face looking so crisp. Read the inscription at his feet before you move on.