In the Hall of Five Hundred at the Palazzo Vecchio, the city hall of Florence, tourists are craning their necks and staring upward. They\u2019re trying to spot the words \u201ccerca trova\u201d\u009d \u201d\u201d \u201cseek and you shall find\u201d\u009d \u201d\u201d on a Vasari mural that figures in the plot of \u201cInferno,\u201d\u009d the latest bestseller by Dan Brown. (Hint: You need binoculars.) In his latest book, Brown has art historian Robert Langdon racing across Florence in pursuit of a bad guy who\u2019s obsessed with Dante Alighieri, the author of the original \u201cInferno.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n
The hall is magnificent, but I\u2019m in Florence on a different mission: to seek out what\u2019s left of Dante\u2019s medieval world. Would the great poet recognize anything in this city so dominated by Renaissance art and architecture if he were to return? The last time he walked these streets, after all, was 700 years ago.<\/p>\n