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, just scroll down this page.

[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.

And here is my translation of Inferno, Canto XXV, Lines 1 – 16

At the conclusion of his words, the thief

Put his hands up with the sign of the two figs

And hollered, “In your face, God. I aimed them at you!”

From that moment on, the snakes became my friends

Because one wound itself all around his neck,

As if it wanted to say, “I don’t want you to speak another word.”

And another wound itself around his arms to hold him tight,

Knotting itself so tightly around his front

That he couldn’t wiggle out.

Ah, Pistoia, Pistoia! Why don’t you legislate

Your own incineration, so that you won’t stick around

Since you go way beyond the corruption of your founders?

Throughout all the circles of dark hell,

I didn’t see a single spirit so full of pride toward God,

Not even that guy who fell off the walls of Thebes.

Fucci fled without uttering another word.