Ho boy, this is a long story. A very long story since this has been the site of a monastery since 1261, though these buildings date back to the 1400s with some 17th century works.

You know Dante Alighieri, right? Probably the most famous Italian writer, born in Firenze, lived from 1265 to 1321, wrote the Divine Comedy , influenced literature in all other languages as well? Well, if not, you should.

He lived and breathed Firenze but unfortunately found himself as part of the wrong faction and ended up being exiled. He bounced around various cities in Italia for a while (including Verona) but his last home was here, in Ravenna.

After his death Firenze decided it had made a huge mistake and wanted his remains back.

Ravenna's response? "Dear Florentine leadership, You exile him, you nick all of his possessions, you tell him that he can return if he pays a huge fine which he can't pay because you've nicked all of his possessions, and you tell him that you'll kill him if he ever comes back without paying that fine. But now that he can no longer politically oppose you, you want his remains back to bask in the glory of his writing. Um.... no. Love, Ravenna".

Ravenna did hit a pothole in 1519 though, when Leo X ascended the papal throne. Leo had been made a cardinal at the age of 14 which was doubtless an appointment based on merit and not on the fact that he was a son of Lorenzo di Medici, the ruler of Florence. His greatest achievements were developing St Peters in Rome and doing it so corruptly that his mere existence pretty much guaranteed the success of the Protestant Reformation, because if anyone was going to reform it sure as heck wasn't going to be Leo. He ordered Ravenna to turn over the bones to Firenze. Ravenna said "OK, come and get him".

In the meantime the Franciscan friars who once occupied this cloister (ah, the story, we get to it!) dug into his crypt, removed his body and hid it in here. (There is a plaque marking the spot where he was hidden somewhere in here.) When the Papal hit squad arrived, they found the tomb empty. Ravenna scratched its collective head, shrugged its shoulders and said "Dunno. He spent a lot of his later years wandering around Italia after you lot threw him out, maybe he's still doing it."

The bones remained here until 1677 when they were unearthed by one of the friars and put on display.

The story does not end there, but this cloister's involvement in it does. The cloister was purchased by the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Ravenna, a cultural foundation which is run by one of the local banks, in 2001. They have restored and upgraded it, and it is currently used for cultural events, especially those dedicated to Dante.

A sign at the entrance (written only in Italian so please excuse any translation bloopers) states that the loggia (the covered walkways which open onto the gardens) has Doric columns in white marble, with the centrepiece of the ground floor the well in the centre of the grass.

The columns on the second floor are made of Istrian stone (Istria is the peninsula that juts out into the north of the Adriatic; you can't miss it on a map), as well as red Veronese and Greek marble.