– The Frecciargento train system connects major metropolitan areas in Italy. Primary lines include Naples to Venice, and Rome to Venice. The Rome-Venice line departs from Rome and stops in Florence before continuing to Venice. Hypothesizing that Zobrist has hidden his plague in Venice, Langdon, Dr. Ferris and Sienna ride this train when they depart Florence. Brown
“O you possessed of sturdy intellect…”
– The opening lines of the text on the inside of the mask are a direct quote of lines 61-63 of Canto IX of Dante’s Inferno. Langdon states, “the opening stanza of Zobrist’s poem is taken verbatim from Dante’s Inferno– an admonition to the reader that the words carry a deeper meaning” (Brown).