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Paola and Francesca: Dante was right

Quthis article is published in issue 28/29 of Vanity Fair on newsstands until July 19, 2022

Who does not remember, as Venditti sang, Paolo and Francesca and the love for “that of the first counter, the prettiest, the most stupid, stupid you”. The story of the very young Francesca da Rimini, who in the 12th century is forced by her family to marry the rough Gianciotto Malatesta and then falls in love with her, loved back by her brother-in-law Paolo and killed with him by her husband, is perhaps the most popular of the Divine Comedy. The V canto of theHellwith that “convict was the book and who wrote it” and that “Amor, ch’a no amato amar pardon”, is one of the most memorable, even if the fact that love obliges the loved one to love had never convinced me. But now I understand. I understood both Dante’s verse and the reason why the union between Paola Turci and Francesca Pascale delighted me so much. Not because of the ex-boyfriends, not because of the age difference, not because of their beauty. The reason why this union seemed so powerful from a symbolic point of view is that it shows how deeply and happily Paola and Francesca are in love. And the fact that two people who are no longer teenagers are so in love and happy seems like a great thing to me. How many happy loves have you seen overwhelm a 57-year-old and a 36-year-old person lately? There will be, but maybe we don’t see them. Instead we could see this white, joyful and quivering love. There are times, a few, when images don’t lie. The video of Paola singing to Francesca You are a big thing, that of the embrace after the yes, the one in which they hold hands, are so simple and authentic that they made me think that Dante was right: if it is truly pure and profound, love is irresistible and cannot fail to be reciprocated. At 57 and 36 you are an adult and if you love each other so much that you want to unite even in front of the world it means
that happy love exists and that love to the gentle heart is learned. And above all that this is a love story that ends well, not as it happened in the Middle Ages.

Source: Vanity Fair

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