The film follows Boccacccio's journey from Florence to Ravenna to offer a monetary compensation to Dante's daughter. Dante had been exiled and could never return to Florence, dying in Ravenna after a long series of journeys across northern Italy. His daughter had followed him to Ravenna, to become a nun in a local convent, never wanting to go back to Florence because of the ill-treatment of her father.

Boccaccio, played by Castellitto, was already elderly and not in good health. During his own journey he meets and talks to people who knew Dante and we follow Dante's history as a series of flashbacks.

The problem is that the past and the present look exactly the same, the recollection of Dante's life jumps all over the place and the story never really takes off.

On the good side, the costumes and settings are suitable threadbare, living conditions are shown to be poor and kind of brutal. There are a couple of emotional scenes, but for others the setting is too artificial, made to look like some Giotto's paintings. On the minus side, I did not like the soundtrack at all and some scenes with Beatrice are just weird, inclusive of the creepy wooden doll.