Dante Today
Citings & Sightings of Dante's Works in Contemporary and Popular Culture
Places Archive
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Garage Inferno, Florence, Italy
(Photo by Alex Bertland, 2009)
Dante on the bus
Piazza San Marco, Florence, Italy
April 9, 2009
Piazza del Limbo, Florence, Italy
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piazza_del_Limbo
Contributed by Patrick Molloy
Image from Dante's View, Death Valley, California
http://www.schweich.com/imagehtml/IMGP2523sm.html
Cgil strike, Genova, December 2008
http://www.repubblica.it/2006/05/gallerie/economia/sciopera-cgil/4.html
The sign cites (with a little alteration) from Inferno XXVI, 118-120
Considerate la vostra semenza:
fatti non foste a viver come bruti,
ma per seguir virtute e canoscenza.'
Consider well the seed that gave you birth:
you were not made to live your lives as brutes,
but to be followers of worth and knowledge.
(trans. Mandelbaum)
Contributed by Virginia Jewiss (Humanities Program, Yale University)
Dante Park, Columbus Ave and W 63rd St., NYC
(photo by Steven Maginnis)
"The New York branch of the Dante Alighieri Society had intended to erect a Dante monument on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Italian unification in 1912. Carlo Barsotti, editor of Il Progresso (the first Italian daily newspaper in the United States), urged subscribers to contribute towards the creation the statue. He had already raised funds for four other New York City monuments honoring Italians: Giuseppe Garibaldi (c. 1888) in Washington Square, Christopher Columbus (1892) in Columbus Circle, Giuseppe Verdi (1906) in Verdi Square, and Giovanni da Verrazano (1909) in Battery Park. Sculptor Ettore Ximenes, however, did not complete the statue until 1921. The monument was dedicated that year, which was the 600th anniversary of Dante's death. In the early 1990s the Radisson Empire Hotel funded the conservation and repair of the sculpture and sponsored horticultural improvements and public programs in the park... In 1921 the south portion of Empire Park was officially renamed by the Board of Aldermen for Italian poet Dante Alighieri (1265-1321)."
http://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/M020/
Dante in protest
(Photo by Kavi Montanaro, 2008)
Banner on Via dei Servi in Florence, Italy. Students, faculty, and parents protesting funding cuts in education and privatization of the school and university systems.
Virgil is saying to Dante, "But no, Dante!... Even Inferno is now privatized... A single fiorino [medieval unit of currency] is no longer enough..."
October 21, 2008
Two Streets in Florence
(Photo by Kavi Montanaro, 2008)
Dante in Cambridge, MA (with CT plates and driving a Honda Civic)
(Photo by Dien Ho, 2008)
Hotel Aleph, Rome
http://boscoloaleph.hotelinroma.com/overview/
"A few steps from Via Veneto, this sleek hotel was transformed from an old bank by New York architect Adam Tihany. Inspired by Dante's Divine Comedy, the themes of saints and sinners make it the perfect place for being naughty or nice this Valentine's Day."
Newsweek, February 11, 2008
http://www.newsweek.com/id/107555
Contributed by Patrick Molloy
"The Divine Therapy"
" 'It's an inferno in here,' yelled a middle-aged woman as she plunged into a foul-smelling hot spring in central Italy. She wasn't the first to compare these scorching sulfur baths to Hell. In Canto XIV of Inferno, Dante wanders past a pool oozing with boiling red water and is reminded of these thermal spas about an hour north of Rome 'whose waters are shared with prostitutes.'
...
"That may explain why spas like Bulicame seem to hold more appeal for the locals. In addition to being free, its commercial-free atmosphere and ancient Roman ruins infuse the bath with history. Besides, Dante's journey through Inferno and Bulicame eventually led him to Paradiso."
David Farley, The New York Times, August 26, 2007
http://travel.nytimes.com/2007/08/26/travel/26journeys.html?ex=1188792000&en=93bcd9ad4cd1efff&ei=5070&emc=eta1
Hell, Norway
(Photo by Sunny Chu, 1996)
Background Image: Domenico di Michelino, Dante and His Comedy, 1465
