Inferno

Langdon and Sienna enter the Church of Dante, which is also the final resting place of Beatrice Portinari, the unrequited love of Dante’s life. Her grave is now a mecca for Dante fans and star-crossed lovers. Langdon borrows an elderly woman’s smartphone and uses it to search the Internet for the correct canto. He finds a passage about Dante’s ”baptismal font” (230). Langdon suddenly realizes he knows where this font is and tells Sienna they must go to the Gates of Paradise.

Langdon and Sienna make their way to the Piazza del Duomo, the square against which sits the famous Il Duomo. Langdon leads them to another building nearby, the Baptistry of San Giovanni, an octagonal structure that Langdon notes would be the architectural toast of any site were it not placed next to Il Duomo.

He draws Sienna toward one of the entryways into the Baptistry, a huge golden gate adorned with heavenly scenes and creatures crafted by Lorenzo Ghiberti and nicknamed by Michelangelo as the Gates of Paradise.

The gilded Gates are themselves guarded by a wrought iron fence and are not commonly used as doors. The Baptistry itself is still closed. While the crowd is distracted, Langdon and Sienna climb the fence and push the gates open, realizing that Busoni has left them unlocked.

The man in the Plume Paris sunglasses watches them and hears the Gates being barred from the inside.

Langdon and Sienna enter the Baptistry and admire its architecture, including the famous baptismal font dug into its central floor, but they realize the famed historical font has been covered and lies unused. Langdon heads back to the Gates and locates a basin nearby that likely functions as a current font. He removes the font’s covering and finds Dante’s death mask staring up at him.

Langdon and Sienna carefully inspect the death mask and notice that the plaster on the inside looks newer than that of the face. Looking closer, they see a message carved into the material of the inner forehead: PPPPPPP. Sienna is disheartened, but Langdon points out that to Dante scholars the message is as clear as day.

Meanwhile, the man in the Plume Paris glasses bribes a guard outside the Baptistry to allow him into the tourist entrance early.

Langdon explains that the PPPPPPP message is linked to the second part of Dante’s Divine Comedy, called Purgatorio, or Purgatory, in which Dante details sinners’ afterlife struggles to climb Mount Purgatory and reach Paradise. Each sinner, upon arriving at Mount Purgatory’s base, would have seven P’s written on their forehead to indicate the seven peccata, or sins. When each sin was overcome, a P would be cleaned from the forehead, and the sinner would reach the next level of the mountain. Langdon notes that the Ps are written into a fresh layer of acrylic gesso, which is water soluble, and he uses the water of the font to begin blotching it off.

After completely removing the gesso, Langdon and Sienna reveal a hidden message written in nine revolutions of symmetrical clockwise Archimedean:

O you possessed of sturdy intellect, observe the teaching that is hidden here…beneath the veil of verses so obscure. Seek the treacherous doge of Venice who severed the heads from horses…and plucked up the bones of the blind. Kneel within the gilded mouseion of holy wisdom, and place thine ear to the ground, listening for the sounds of trickling water. Follow deep into the sunken palace…for here, in the darkness, the chthonic monster waits, submerged in the bloodred waters…of the lagoon that reflects no stars (255).

The mention of Venice is particularly intriguing to Langdon as it is the city in which Dante contracted the disease that killed him. Before they can decipher the riddle poem, the man with the Plume Paris glasses enters the room and calls out to Langdon by name.

The man introduces himself as Dr. Jonathan Ferris and claims to have originally transported Langdon to Florence the day before. Langdon and Sienna quickly explain Langdon’s amnesia and point out the man’s broad rash. Dr. Ferris explains it is merely contact dermatitis stemming from his use of soy-based Italian soaps, which he is allergic to. He promises to explain more as he helps them reach Venice.

Langdon phones his publisher and requests access to a private jet flight to Geneva. The publisher calls the jet company and connects Langdon with a representative, who agrees to book the flight. However, after hanging up, the representative realizes Langdon’s passport has been flagged, and she immediately contacts the local authorities.

Back in Florence, it is revealed that Sienna suggested the call as a shot at misdirection, hoping to lead Brüder and any other pursuers away long enough for the trio to catch a domestic train to Venice.