Caught a replay of Dan Brown's Inferno on HBO. The best I can say about it is that it is quite faithful to the novel. The women in this story are at least no longer foils to the Wikipedia dialogue of Tom Hanks, who looks so much older and puffier here that I couldn't help but wonder if he will end up looking like John Huston in Chinatown by the time they do the next sequel.

One scene gave me the chills both when I was reading it and when I was watching it. It's that one set in the attic of Apotheosis of Cosimo I. That scene always reminds me of the time when Alan R. Holst was Cultural Affairs Officer and we were working on a particular Ambassador's Fund for Cultural Preservation project. Tina Paterno brought us to the highest attic of the San Sebastian Basilica, and we looked over the backs of the antique paintings on the ceilings. I wondered if anyone had ever fallen there. Later, Tina offered to take us even higher, to the top of one of the belfries, but Allan and I very intelligently declined.