Italian here - your feelings toward this book are most likely the result of our mandatory 3-year Divine Comedy classes we all had in high school. It's sad to note that most of us developed indifference - if not mild aversion - to Dante's work after that. If you have time and will, I really recommend to read this book skipping all comments, interpretations and stuff. Then most likely you'll see why people from all over the world admire his work. Dante was a poetic genius that created an entire language from scratch and pushed it in incredible directions. And yes, he truly was an uber-nerd of his time.