Dante

The Guide and I entered by that hidden road, to return into the bright world; and, without caring for any rest,
we mounted up, he first and I second, so far that I distinguished through a round opening the beauteous things which Heaven bears; and thence we issued out, again to see the Stars.

- The Inferno, Canto XXXIV, Dante

The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri, trans. by Carlyle-Okey-Wicksteed. Vintage Books. 1959
The image above is Dante's Tomb in Ravenna