“…sped along the narrow breakdown lane until she could see the snarled intersection.”
A breakdown lane is a lane, also known as a shoulder, is an area to the side of a road or motorway that is used by cars when they breakdown. Otherwise, you are not generally not supposed to drive down it. Vayentha uses this lane because she is in a hurry to get out of town.
“Up ahead was a clogged rotary where six major thoroughfares converged.”
A rotary, or traffic circle, is generally an intersection where cars circle around a central island. The rotary where Vayentha is trying to go through, Porta Romana, is stopped with traffic because the entire area has become a checkpoint for police looking for Langdon.
“Brϋder had at his disposal endless manpower as well as a vast array of advanced surveillance technologies.”
Surveillance is when someone is monitoring the activities and behaviors of a person or place. In this case, Brϋder is using all of the technology in his power to monitor the area to find Robert Langdon. Vayentha takes note of this because she is comparing her ability to find Langdon to that of Brϋder.
“Revving the throttle on her BMW…”
When you rev the throttle it triggers a mechanism by which you can increase an engine’s power. Vayentha revs her throttle in order to get to Langdon before Brϋder can.
“Ponte alle Grazie….picturing the bridge to the north”
“The Ponte alle Grazie is a bridge over the Arno River in Florence, Italy.” Vayentha knows that Langdon is trying to get into the old city, and she thinks that it is her best bet to wait on this bridge to catch him.
This page was written by Karina Toy
“Has Langdon eluded Brüder as well?” Brüder is the German word for “brother.” Dan Brown may be alluding to “Big brother is watching over you.” This is from the George Orwell novel, 1984.