It's time to escape from this reality and warm up the Frog-man's skinny legs for a continuation of the journey from which this blog has its name. But first, since the story is heavily inspired by Dante's Divine Comedy, here's a little info.
Bust with Dante's likeness in front of Casa di Dante Alighieri in Florence, Italy.
Dante Alighieri (1265 - 1321), the greatest poet of all time*), is born in Florence in late May or early June, into a family of good name, but not much wealth.
*) I've never claimed to be objective.
He's nine years old when he meets the girl who will be his muse and true love for the rest of his life - a life which will last much longer than hers. The girl was Beatrice (Bice) Portinari. Eventually, she got married according to her family's wishes, Dante according to his. But he never writes about his wife and children, just about the wonderful Beatrice. If Dante's wife ever read his Vita Nuova (1293), she couldn't have been the jealous type. On the other hand, in 1293 Beatrice had already been dead three years. She got to be 25.
The tomb of Beatrice is in the small Florentine church Santa Margherita de' Cerchi.
After a political fight, Dante was expelled from his beloved home town of Florence, with a pending death sentence if he should chance a revisit. So for the rest of his life Dante was a rootless man. He traveled a lot, and not only in Italy. It's said he visited both Paris and London. The creation of his main work, La Commedia (The Comedy, Divina - Divine - wasn't added for a couple of centuries), was started around 1307, and finished a short time before his death in Ravenna, fourteen years later.
Next: The journey continues.
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