Abandon all hope, ye who enter here... Inscribed above the Gate of Hell, this prophecy sets into motion an epic journey for salvation. Written over 10 years, Dante Alighieri's three-part narrative poem "Divine Comedy" is both an...

History is littered with the stories of people who, for a variety of reasons, were cast away from their homes and forced to live in foreign lands. Getting exiled was always a risk in the game of politics. Make the wrong enemy or fall...

As beings that mediate between heaven and earth, angels have been the focus of both fascination and fear for centuries. In the past, they’ve been described as fireballs, forms without substance, or massive beings that collect blood or...

The Griffin is a half-lion, half-eagle creature that is commonly seen adorning royal crests and perched menacingly atop buildings. Why is this ancient creature that many of us see every day largely forgotten?

In this lesson, we enter a dream - or is it a nightmare? In Part 2 of The Hollow Men, TS Eliot shows us a portrait of a soul in peril and a civilisation in ruins. As our character dreams, he’s haunted by visions and fragments of things...

The typical Italian Gothic building, the Cathedral of Florence, is dedicated to "Santa Maria del Fiore". The church was designed by Arnolfo di Cambio (c1245-1302) who considerably enlarged the existing religious structure. Finished...

Mythology & Fiction Explained explores the Dante's Inferno, part one of the Dinve Comedy

Mythology & Fiction Explained returns to Dante's Divine Comedy, having covered Inferno and due to very very popular demand we are now tagging along with Dante and Virgil as they travel through Purgatory. Join us on this wild adventure...

Engravings by Gustav Dorè illıustrating Dante's Divine Comedy have been digitized in high resolution and enlarged for a truly atmospheric effect inside the Basilica of Santa Croce

Many people who come to Florence to pay homage to Dante do not know he was exiled and later sentenced to death.