The Botticelli
By: Marina Fiorato
This book has it all; sex, art, mystery, Italy, history and romance! It is set in 1482, so I had to skim over the dungeons and torture descriptions. Still, I blew through the 516 pages in four days!
“Florence looks like gold and smells like sulfur. The buildings are massive, gorgeous, and epic. They are made of glowing gilded stone and silver marble. Yet the smells - animal dung, human waste, rotting meat and vegetables left in the gutter from market - would make a tanner blanche. In fact, the city is a mass of contradictions.” p3
“As to your expression, he said in his coarse Florentine, I want you to give a tiny smile, as if you have just enjoyed yourself in bed.” p17
“There, set into a deep green meadow studded with diamond raindrops, towered a holy trinity of the finest buildings ever seen. I slid from my mount, mouth slack with wonder. In the bright sun the white Cathedral was a dazzling marble casket, the Baptistery a perfectly balanced round jewel of a building, crowned with a filigree diadem. And most fantastic of all, the campanile, leaning at an impossible angle. …the place was called Campo dei Miracoli - the field of miracles… “ p71
“… One of a working girl's greatest talents is the ability to remember a phrase or tidbit and quote it back to a client. It is one of the cornerstones of flattery, and every man likes it, monarch or monk.” p224
“My eyes were dizzy with color, my ears deaf with the bawling of the bells.” p288
“It rained all night, outside my window and on my pillow.” p355
“Because in Genoa two brothers have a map shop by the sea and dream of finding new lands. Because in Bolzano they eat dumplings called Knodel and dance like lunatics. Because in Pisa, there is a tower that leans, but does not fall down, and every year four quarters of the city push a tree trunk over a bridge. Because in Venice they have built a city on water and make wonders glass out of dust. Because in Naples you can buy a carving of the nativity so real it says if you're there, and at the next stall by a human skull. Because in this land, I had to steady my voice, a man can love his city so much, he will give his life to have it stay the same.” p496