This is a great way to learn more about the late medieval view of the world and its ways. ( )

It will forever puzzle me that Cassius and Brutus are put in the innermost circle alongside Judas, seemingly elevating Caesar above the Christ.
( )

Of The Divine Comedy, I only read The Inferno, and found it overrated. Dante does a lot of score-settling about contemporary figures of whom he disapproves. (I am not guessing here; my copy is an annotated edition which explains the references to Dante's contemporaries.)

Analogy: Suppose you're living on Mars 500 years from now and you read a supposedly classic work, written by an American in the early 21st century, which features a Democrat or Republican harshing people in the other party. E.g. it's written a by a liberal taking potshots at Tucker Carlson or a conservative taking potshots at Nancy Pelosi. What a waste! The setting is Hell itself! The thematic material is sin, virtue, punishment, redemption, the afterlife... the Big Stuff! And Dante lets himself get distracted with "this one corrupt politician at the time I'm writing this is going to Hell." Sad! ( )

Progressing through the Inferno
Review of the Random House Audio audiobook edition (July 11, 2017) narrated by Dominic Hoffman of the Jean Hollander & Robert Hollander translation (orig. published in hardcover by Doubleday Dec. 2000) of the Italian language original (1320)

ché non è impresa da pigliare a gabbo
discriver fondo a tutto l'universo,
né da lingua che chiami mamma o babbo.
- Inferno, Canto XXXII, lines 7-9

It is no enterprise taken lightly -
to describe the very bottom of the universe -
nor for a tongue that cries 'mommy' and daddy.'
- Inferno, Canto XXXII lines 7-9 as translated by Jean and Robert Hollander.

I am continuing with gradually reading the Hollander's translation in print with its extensive introduction and notes. The map which they provide is very basic however and hardly provides any help in orientation.
See map at http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-URvm89pQeuI/UaPO8Z0FqrI/AAAAAAAAAzg/ESh1EVp-Bw8/s1600/...
Dante's Map of Hell by Jeffrey L. Ward as included in the print editions of The Inferno as translated by Jean and Robert Hollander. Image sourced from the Cutting Edge Conformity Blogspot.

A good map is extremely useful in understanding the characters, the geography and the structure of the book. This one by Ryan Flynn is the best one that I've found. There are dozens of others available via google image search. You can click on the source url below in order to zoom in on the details.
See map at http://i.imgur.com/WF60rN4.jpg
Map of Inferno by Ryan Flynn sourced from http://i.imgur.com/WF60rN4.jpg

You really do need an extensive list of notes to understand the characters that Dante has placed in Hell, many of which were his late contemporaries. This is a sort of medieval trolling where he gets to condemn them to eternal torments. The most shocking element (aside from the closing obscenity of Canto XXI's closing line ed elli avea del' cul fatto trombetta. (Italian: And he made a trumpet of his asshole.) is that the inner circles of hell are reserved for forgers and traitors, rather than for more vicious physical crimes or blasphemy.

Overall the translation flowed well and was given an excellent, but mostly somber reading, by Dominic Hoffman.

This audio edition provides no introduction or notes. The Hollander translation in print also provides the original Italian on each facing page. ( )

Classic poem of a journey through hell. I did not read the other two in the trilogy. ( )