By the time Dante awakens, he and Virgil have already reached the third circle of Hell.

The gluttonous lie in the mud under a torrent of freezing rain for all eternity. 

Cerberus, the three-headed infernal hound, bites and scratches at them.

Cerberus, fierce and monstrous beast,
barks from three gullets like a dog
over the people underneath that muck.
His eyes are red, his beard a greasy black,
his belly swollen. With his taloned hands
he claws the spirits, flays and quarters them.

EXCERPT OF THE COMEDY: Inf. 6, 13-18

Virgil tosses a handful of mud into Cerberus’ maw, which pacifies him. The two then begin to tread through the prostrate damned when one of them, Ciacco, sits up to talk to Dante, having recognized in the poet a fellow Florentine.

01 08 BLM Plut 90 inf 42 f 29 r cropped

In the quill drawing at the bottom of the page, Dante and Virgil encounter Ciacco and the gluttons. - Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Plut. 90 inf. 42, f. 29r.

Ciacco criticizes Florence, denouncing the city’s prideful ways and the envy and greed of its citizens that is destroying it. He shares with Dante a prophecy concerning Florence’s future: 

he has foreseen a great conflict between the White Guelphs and the Black, which he notes will end in victory for the latter. The Black Guelphs will then chase out the White, including Dante, who will then be exiled from his home.

Fourth Circle
Descend into the fourth circle