2021-03-16 23:35:27 GMT2021-03-17 07:35:27(Beijing Time) Xinhua English
ROME, March 16 (Xinhua) -- It would be hard to look back over the centuries of Italy's rich cultural history and reach a consensus over who was the nation's greatest painter, sculptor, or composer. But the most important Italian writer? That's much easier: Dante.
This year marks the 700th anniversary of the death of Dante Alighieri, the Tuscan-born writer, poet, and philosopher. And despite the limitations from the coronavirus pandemic, the country is pulling out all the stops to commemorate the event, as it did last year for the 500th anniversary of the death of Renaissance master painter Raphael and the quincentennial of iconic Leonardo da Vinci's death in 2019.