To Florence – The city of Flair

I was 14 years old when I picked up a novel starring the female protagonist, Susan Fletcher and David Becker, her fiancé and an eminent professor. I barely had any idea on the book or how it was going to change the rest of my life. The book I am talking about is, “Digital Fortress” by Dan Brown, who later turned out to be my all time favourite author because of his crisp detailing and the vivid pace that I discovered among the pages of his book.

Paris has always been on my bucket list. For a long time since I was a kid, I wanted to lie down on the stretch of greenery beneath the majestic Eiffel. However, as I flipped through the pages of Da Vinci Code, I fixed my mind that the Louvre is at least thousand times more attractive than the Eiffel. The least sought Saint Sulpice and the search for the Holy grail had me nail biting till the very end. I dreamt of myself becoming Sophie and I was looking for my Prince Charming wearing his limited edition Bradley Mickey Mouse watch and seriously suffering with claustrophobia. I’ve always thought that was going to be my prince charming…

Until today, when I realise I do really have a Prince Charming with me, right now at the Palazzo Vecchio, roaming the same streets where Robert Langdon hustled to “Seek and Find” (To be precise Cerca Trova-ing) Dante Alighieri’s death mask, bringing me a step closer to the biggest wishes on my bucket list. To be honest, I’m breaking into tears, because I feel this is the closest that anyone I know could get to the places where Robert Langdon once strolled and ran and chased as he was discovering Dante’s Inferno and Zobrist’s iniquitous plan of mass destruction.

I’d seriously want to explore the places where Langdon and Brooks ran, right from the Boboli gardens to Dante’s church to exploring the art and every little detail in the renaissance sculptures. The symbols and clues out there are endless, and I wish that someday, I get to explore all these in reality with my real life Langdon.

I know that no one reading this can relate to it like I do. You’d have to experience and read between the lines in a Dan Brown book to relish and cherish the artefacts in all of Europe. I am seriously finishing this up with a few images that I am going to cherish for the rest of my life and also with very high hopes that by the time another Dan Brown’s novel is released, I’d be the one to finish it real quick and go down hunting on the streets of maybe Paris or Florence or Vatican or Spain or Rome or Istanbul, with you.

Until then, it is

Without Wax,

Madiha

Quoted from Inferno. This is how it goes, “The Palazzo Vecchio resembles a giant chess piece.  With its robust quadrangular facade and rusticated square cut battlements…”

The Vasari Corridor is an elevated enclosed passageway which connects Palazzo Vecchio and Palazzo Pitti designed by Giorgio Vasari, who also painted The battle of Marciano carrying the minute detailing “Cerca Trova”, a little clue to Zobrist’s mention of Dante’s Inferno.