Ep. 2: Boccaccio

Literary Italy

A writer from the fourteenth century might not seem relevant, but Boccaccio has a lot to say about how to while away the hours in epidemic lockdown and how to make yourself look good in job interviews.
While Dante has been well-known to non-Italian audiences for centuries, Giovanni Boccaccio has enjoyed a new popularity thanks to the setting of his Decameron during the 1348 plague. With the Black Death as a background, the Decameron consists of one hundred tales told by ten Florentine noblemen and women who have fled the city for ten days in order to find respite and peace in the Tuscan hillsides. Although many of the stories take place in Florence, there are also many others that taken place in various small towns and further cities.
Boccaccio himself was probably born in the small town of Certaldo, located south of the cit of Florence, where you can today visit his tomb. Several towns have claimed to be the location of the villas where the Brigata tell the one hundred tales, but the town of Fiesole, just north of Florence, deserves a visit regardless. You may also find less expensive accommodations around Fiesole, as well as cooler air during the summer months, and still have access to the city center by bus or car (park at the underground car park in Piazza della Libertà).
You can find the Decameron as well as history and commentary at Brown University's Decameron Web.