This is when my travel buddy took me to the nearest bar (even though it was ten o'clock in the morning) and wisely ordered a carafe of red wine. I needed to retreat to a dark space with no art on the walls. It turned out I needed more than half a carafe to unclutter a mind that had become over-stimulated.
Ah, Dante Alighieri! This was a subject near and dear to my heart. I had taken a semester long course in college on The Divine Comedy and it was the one and only class I took that didn't carry a certain amount of anxiety with it. For one thing, my professor really brought to life the history of Florence and the life of this great poet He wanted us to really understand and to love the complicated cantos. All we had to do was show up and discuss the current day's reading. There were no tests. It was pure joy!
Dante was born into a prosperous Florence. Its economy was based upon banking and international trade The merchant and artisan guilds were thriving. It was second only to Paris in population--around 80,000 people. However, politics remained a hotbed of contention. The Ghibelline party who supported the Holy Roman emperor and the Guelphs who supported the papacy were in constant battle against each other. In the 1280's, Dante served his city in the military fighting against the Ghibellines. After that, he took part in the city's government and even served as one of the six priors making up the Signoria. The Guelphs, however, eventually started to bicker among themselves and split into two groups: The White Guelphs, making up the merchant class; and the Black Guelphs, consisting of the nobility.
In 1301, when Dante was away from Florence, the Black Guelphs accused him of trumped-up criminal charges and summoned him back to the city to appear in court. When he didn't show up, he was condemned to death and forced into exile. He never stepped foot in his beloved city again. However, he was able to devote the rest of his life to creative writing. He completed the Divine Comedy in Ravenne in 1321.
The Comedy is peppered with the people he knew in Florence. He got his sweet revenge by sending his enemies straight to hell. Of the three books, it is the Inferno, of course, I enjoyed the best. It is the ultimate horror story; the images so grotesque, you can't help but wonder about the man's sanity. He died September 14, 1321.
My travel buddy and I decided to give ourselves a break that day. After toasting Dante and his beloved Beatrice several times, we walked along the Arno, window shopped and went back to our pension for an afternoon nap. (Note to self: Next time you're in Florence, go to the Dante Museum; buy Foresto Niccolai's book The Dante Plaques and track them all down.)
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