Vanni Fucci has given his big speech, complete with a clear statement of his crime/sin and an opaque statement of the future of Dante's friends and family (and even the poet himself) in Florence.

But we're not done with Fucci. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, for his final moments in Dante's INFERNO. Fucci gives God a vulgar hand gesture, is wrapped up in snakes, and runs off, leaving our poet with the last laugh.

Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:

[01:21] My English translation of this passage: INFERNO, Canto XXV, lines 1 - 16. If you'd like to read along, you can find this passage on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[02:57] Vanni Fucci gives God the sign of the figs. What does that mean?

[06:07] Dante reverses the Genesis curse as the snakes become his friends.

[08:26] Dante the poet curses Pistoia. Why is the poet so present in the seventh of the evil pouches, the malebolge of fraud?

[09:56] Dante continues his tour of Italian cities in Inferno's eighth circle of fraud.

[12:50] Dante makes a reference to Capaneus--and thus, to his own text, Inferno.

[14:50] Fucci flees--and we're left with a question: Is Comedy a revenge fantasy?

[18:21] I read the entire Vanni Fucci episode: from Inferno, Canto XXIV, line 79 to Canto XXV, line 16.