Detail from 13th Century mosaic ceiling in the Baptistry, Florence
Work in progress.
A book for anyone with imagination from the age of ten upwards
After his adventures in space, a man called Dante returns to Planet Earth to write about his experiences in Hell, his escape from the terrors of the underworld, and his struggle to climb a hidden mountain higher than the skies to reach the place where his beloved, who has invisibly been helping him along his dangerous journey, is waiting to show him things that no man has ever seen before.
"Giant trees towered above our heads as we headed down a thorny track. The darkness grew thicker, the path sloped more steeply and I felt I was falling into a bottomless hole. We stumbled over ancient rocks hundreds of millions of years old, rocks brittle with age that make up the Earth’s crust. Losing our footing on granite scree as we hurtled down, we scrambled and slid for what seemed an eternity, sucked downwards as if by a giant magnet. After a distance of about twenty miles we came to a standstill in front of a huge gate that loomed suddenly through the murk. On the portal above the opening - a gaping wide hole in the rock which seemed to be leading into a fathomless cave - was inscribed in dark letters: Through me is the way to eternal pain: abandon all hope, you who enter here. Seeing how frightened I was Virgil took me by the hand. I took one last look at the sky, which had never seemed more beautiful. My guide whispered to me to trust him. We entered..."