1. Brown went back to Europe, thank goodness!! Now, I live in the great ole US of A and think we have some pretty interesting history, but! Let's be real. The Eastern Hemisphere is where you want to go for real intrigue, drama and true history. If I could find a job that let me travel endlessly over in the Eastern Hemisphere, I would do so in a heartbeat. So once again, thank goodness he went back to Europe for this one. And, he choose beautiful cities for his plot line.
Ah! Florence or Firenze as the locals call it is a city not to be missed when you visit Italy. Dylan and I went there 2 summers ago when we took our first group of high school students to Europe, and we all just fell in love with the place!!! Brown does a superb job with his imagery and sensory words; he truly makes you feel as if you are there, wandering the streets and taking tours of the various museums, gardens and palaces. After having been, I truly enjoyed taking a walk down memory lane as his words helped my mind conjure up snapshots of our trip. :) Truly incredible! He also mentioned places we did not have time to tour, and now I want to go back and view those places. EX: Pitti Palace and Boboli Gardens of the Medici
I would go back to Florence in a heartbeat! The sights, smells, food, people and of course- THE ART. Holy moly.... THE ART! And trust me, the art is impressive, whether you really like art history or not. Dylan was so inspired by the sculptures we saw that during our free time, he sat in the open courtyard in front of the Medici palace and started to free hand some of the sculptures in the area. Examples...
Hercules and Caucus
Michelangelo's DAVID
Perseus with Medusa in the foreground. Background left is Rape of the Sabine Women
One of the main entrances to the Medici Palace, which is now a museum.
The river is the Arno and the bridge is called the Ponte Vecchio. It was the only bridge not destroyed by Hitler and his Nazis army when they occupied parts of Italy because of the special walkway you see on top of the bridge. The windows up there line a huge walkway that covered most of the city, either above or below ground. The Medici Family, who ruled Florence for centuries but are famous for their rule during the Renaissance (late 1300s through 1550s), did not want to walk on the ground with the commoners from their various palaces and buildings in the city. So, they had a great walkway/tunnel built between all of the sites so they could walk above the people, looking down on them and never come into contact with the vernacular, or every day life of Florence. Today, the bridge is home to most of the expensive jewlery shops of Florence and you can take a tour of the walkway.
The Church of Santa Maria della Fiore or The Duomo. Exquisite, beautiful and awe-inspiring.
The Baptistry is connected to the church, right across the roadway but is famous for it's bronze doors called Gates of Paradise done by the artist Ghilberti. We covered these doors extensively in Art History my senior year of high school, and I fell in love with them. It was a true experience to be able to see them in person. (If you did not know, 95% of the time works of art outside are copies due to time, weather, and people's hands. The real pieces are inside, usually behind ropes or glass in order to preserve them.)
Now, the other 2 cities featured heavily in this book (I have not been here yet) are Istanbul, Turkey, featuring the Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque and Topkepi Palace:
And Venice, Italy, specifically the area of St. Mark's Square and Basilica.
2. Dante and his DIVINE COMEDY. "Midway upon the journey of our life, I found myself within a forest dark, for the straightforward pathway had been lost..."
Talk about a poem/book that changed history. Written during the mid-1300s, at a time when still over half the population of Europe could not read nor write, it is just mind-boggling what Dante does. I mean, the printing press was not invented until the 1500s, so books were still copied by hand and education was only given to the very wealthy!! The Divine Comedy is not funny, so if you have never heard of it before or never read it, please don't think you are going to be amused. You're not. I mean, there is plenty of sarcasm, but nothing actually funny. It is about personal introspection; you are made to look at your life and the actions you have committed. It is one man's journey through Hell and back out again into Paradise. Hence, the 3 sections: Inferno/Hell, Purgatory and Paradise. We read Inferno in college World Lit, and I just fell in love with the story. It is dark, twisted and very macabre, but there is a happy ending. Dante writes about the 7 Deadly Sins, and the punishment he sees in Hell for each of these. There are levels of Hell, going from bad to worse, according to the sin you commit. For example, betrayal is the last sin and last level.. level 9. People like Judas Iscariot and Brutus reside there, frozen in ice up to their necks, because of their treachery and betrayal against those they loved. The protagonist, Dante, travels through Hell guided by Virgil (famous Roman) and his love Beatrice (she died very early in life but Dante loved her regardless). They guide him through the levels as he meets famous people of that time or the past who are stuck in their punishments. As he travels, the protagonist tries to understand the base need for people to commit sins in society. Dante is upset about the world he sees around him in Florence, and this translates into his story. The political world during his time period was nasty and brutish, with the Medici taking control and leaving no prisoners behind. He wrote many unflattering things about prominent political and religious figures of the time. Much of Dante's images of Hell translated into church teachings and helped give people visuals for what would happen to them if they were not saved. They are still widely used today. Now, who is to say whether any of it is correct or not, but the punishments given for each sin and their imagery is something to greatly think about and should give anyone pause before they indulge in any of those actions.
"Consider your origin. You were not formed to live like brutes, but to follow virtue and knowledge."
-Dante-
I also like the poem because it does have a happy ending. Plus, it is about perserverence. Dante's protagonist never gives up hope that he will eventually find Paradise. He knows he will eventually make it to Heaven and be reunited with his loved ones he lost and find peace. What a beautiful message for us today! The protagonist views things of unspeakable horror and has to look back on the awful things he has done in his life thus far and could possibly do in his future, but he manages to overcome the trials and tribulations. He comes out alive. He emerges into Paradise with a clean soul; a new being. Once again, what a beautiful message! Hopefully, I will get to say this one day! Hopefully all of us will get to emerge in Heaven, in Paradise with new, clean souls at the end of our days!!! :)
"Do not be afraid; our fate cannot be taken from us; it is a gift." -Dante-
3. Last but not least, Brown tackles the rough issue of over-population in our world today. He does not necessarily provide answers for this problem, but he brings to light the issue of over-population and what that means for us, the enviorment and the children we continue to bring into this world. I will not go into further detail, because I do not want to spoil the book for those of you who have not read and are going to. Suffice it to say, we have seen many instances in world history where nature/God/science.... whatever you want to call it or whatever makes you feel better, takes matters into it's own hands and brings down the population of the world through various means. Are we at another of those "crossroads" time in humanity... who knows? Can we fix these problems ourselves without outside interference... who knows? I can honestly say I don't have any answers, but I am glad writers, journalists etc. have the guts to talk about and bring to light issues that are problems for our world. The older I get, the more frustrated I become with people who choose to live in "ignorance as bliss." NO! Get your head out of the sand and do something! I don't care what it is, but do something! You see problems each day in your daily life; we must try to do something about them. Goodness knows I try at work to combat the evil I see/hear human beings do to each other every day. The bad days do seem to outweigh the good days by a ton, but, you never give up. We as a whole, cannot give up. Dante says "The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in times of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality."
Now, that is a forceful statement. Do I agree with all of it? No. But, I do see the point. If we... if you... don't fight to change what you see, don't fight to make the lives of others around you better, don't fight to keep what is good, right and pure in this world alive, well, we are no better off than the "lukewarm" people in the New Testament. Jesus, Dante, Muhammad... even Buddha, call us to pick a side, to fight and believe in what is right.
In conclusion, read the book! It has much more to offer than I could ever hope to write about or blog on. And maybe, you don't see what I see. That is okay. Maybe you see something different than me- great! Share if you do! That is the beauty of the written word! Just don't be afraid to feel and believe in what you do find....
"In that book which is my memory, on the first page of chapter that is the day when I first met you, appear the words: Here begins new light....
Remember tonight, for it's the beginning of forever..." -Dante
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