Inferno !!!

Dan Brown, the master of "Symbolism" has written yet another scorching thriller, "Inferno".

Even though I absolutely enjoy his novels, I had always felt that Dan Brown has a formula:

• use one of the Italian cities as the backdrop for the story
• weave in in a famous Italian artist/painter and his paintings 
• come up with clever symbols and hidden meanings associated with these symbols
• add a villain out to do something really bad 
• throw in a beautiful female character as the heroine 
• of course, the hero, the Harvard Professor, Robert Langdon - who lives in Boston :)
• add some thrilling escapes through secret tunnels

This formula looks very simple and can become boring if repeated many times. Having read his previous bestsellers, "The Da Vinci Code" and "Angels and Demons" (which fit in to the above formula very well), I thought this novel may not be that interesting!!!

Dan Brown has proved me wrong and has cleverly spun a tale that hooks in the reader with plenty of twists and turns. I completed the big-size, 480 pages novel within 4 days. I simply can't put the book down.

The story starts in Florence, Italy and then moves to Venice, the 2 cities we absolutely enjoyed during our 2006 Europe trip.  The fact that we had visited the places and enjoyed the paintings in the story made me personally part of the story. Thanks to Dan Brown, as I was reading the novel, I pulled out the Florence and Venice photos and was referring to them.

In his first book, "The Da Vinci Code", of course, the associated artist was Leonardo Da Vinci. In this book it is the Italian Poet "Dante Alighieri, more famously known as Dante.  In Italian language, "Inferno" means "Hell" and is the first part of a 3 part poem in Dante's work "The Divine Comedy".

Hoping that you would read the book, I am not going to give away the story. Instead, I have included the photos I took in Florence and Venice, of places and paintings that play an important role in this novel.

Florence: "The Duomo", the one place no tourist to Florence would want to miss

Florence: The Duomo, The Tower and the octagon shaped Baptistery where a major breakthrough happens in the novel. 

Florence: The golden doors of the Baptistery. Something unthinkable happens at this door in the novel !!!

Florence: Vasari's fresco, "The Last Judgement" (started painting in 1568), inside the dome of the "The Duomo". 

Florence: The famous painting, "Purgatory, hell and Paradise" in side the Duomo.
Dante, with his poem "The Divine Comedy". His famous description of the hell is on the left side and
the city of Florence is on the right side.

Florence: Palazzo Vecchio (opened in 1299) at Piazza Della Signoria. Action packed part of the novel happens inside.

Florence: The entrance of Palazzo Vecchio  with a replica of Michelangelo's famous
David (of David & Goliath) statue on the left side.

Florence: The Ponte Vecchio bridge with Vasari's Corridor on the top! 

Venice: The Grand Canal

Venice: The historic and beautiful, Rialto bridge (earlier version built in 1181 and the current built in 1591)
over the Grand Canal.

Venice: Basilica at Piazza San Marco.

Venice: Close up view of the Basilica entrance. The horse statues at the top are part of  the symbolic clue in the novel!

Venice: Masks in a mask shop. The novel revolves around Dante's mask!!!

Thanks to Dan Brown, this novel has rekindled my passion and desire to visit Italy, again!!! The novel's climax happens in Istanbul, Turkey, making me wanting to visit Turkey too :))