Mornings tumbling by

These mornings of such glory tumble by. We did a lovely walk to Romena castle by the spring Dante mentions in the Inferno section - Fonte Branda.

‘If I could see the sad souls of Guido or d'Alessandro and his brothers at the Fonte Branda I’d give my eyesight’ I think the marble plaque said.

Our comune - Castel San Niccolò- has a population of 2,600 compared to Mull’s 2,900 but a density ten times as much (which to be honest still ain’t much). Four more cases yesterday.

We had a bbq in the last of the sun. Things have an elegiac quality as we ponder how we might get home to see family and be in the bosom of our own.

Breaking: I’ve maybe got the translation wrong. Here Google translated from a paraphrase of the same passage displayed in Siena:

The paraphrase of the plaque is: But if I saw here the evil soul of Guido, Alessandro or their brother (Aghinolfo), in exchange I would give up drinking from the Fonte Branda. Dante refers to the counts Guidi di Romena, Guido II and Alessandro, who induced Mastro Adamo da Brescia to forge the gold florin for them. Both were sentenced to the stake only to be forgiven

Clearly this needs more work. Hmm. It seems the Conte Guidi of Romena in the 13th century persuaded Mastro Adamo to falsify the gold florin. For this mastro Adamo was burnt - arso vivo - at the stake.