I saw Dante's tomb while I was in Florence. He was everywhere there, one of the favored sons. I found this, of course, highly ironic, since they cast him out during his lifetime for being of the wrong political persuasion. Our guide, the lovely Marco, pointed out the fact when we passed the museum made of his "house." They tore it down when they exiled Dante. Later, after they recognized the grandeur of his writing, in a fit of guilt, they rebuilt a replica on the site. Irony abounds. A bust of him made from his death mask adorns a niche on the outside. I wonder if Dante himself would have been able to make that elegant shrug and say with his modern-day son, "Sometimes it happens" as he stood in that cobbled square. I hope so.
I saw Dante's tomb while I was in Florence. He was everywhere there, one of the favored sons. I found this, of course, highly ironic, since they cast him out during his lifetime for being of the wrong political persuasion. Our guide, the lovely Marco, pointed out the fact when we passed the museum made of his "house." They tore it down when they exiled Dante. Later, after they recognized the grandeur of his writing, in a fit of guilt, they rebuilt a replica on the site. Irony abounds. A bust of him made from his death mask adorns a niche on the outside. I wonder if Dante himself would have been able to make that elegant shrug and say with his modern-day son, "Sometimes it happens" as he stood in that cobbled square. I hope so.
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And then you said.....