Reading through the Divine Comedy in real time

This year I am attempting to read through Dante's Divine Comedy in real time. The Comedy tells the story of Dante's journey through Hell, Purgatory and Paradise.

The trilogy is set over the Easter period. In Canto XXI of the Inferno, Dante is told that "yesterday, five hours by the clock from now, 'twas just twelve hundred, sixty and six years since the road was rent by earthquake shock". This refers to the earthquake that occurred when Jesus was crucified.

I am reading the Comedy in Dorothy L. Sayers' translation, which helpfully includes the time at which each canto is set. Occasionally Dante includes a reference to the time at which something occurs, and so Sayers' scheme is as follows:

Inferno	Canto I	Good Friday – morning	“Then I looked up and saw the morning rays” (I.16)
	Cant. I – VII	Good Friday – evening	“To that place wherein the sun is mute” (I.60)
	Canto VII	Good Friday – midnight	“All stars that rose when I set out now sink” (VII.98)
	Cant. VII – XXVIII	Holy Saturday – morning	“Horizon-high the twinkling Fishes swim” (XI.113) = 4am
	Cant. XXVIII – XXXIV	Holy Saturday – afternoon	“Night is rising on the world once more” (XXXIV.68)
	Cant. XXXIV	Easter Sunday – morning	“By this we climbed, and thence came forth, to look once more upon the stars” (XXXIV.138-139)
Purgatorio	Cant. I – IV	Easter Sunday – morning	“And the dawn rose triumphant, making flee the morning breeze before her” (I. 115-116)
	Canto IV	Easter Sunday – noon	“Look how the sun doth stand Meridian-high” (IV.137)
	Cant. IV – VIII	Easter Sunday – afternoon	“Te lucis ante, so devoutly he breathed forth” (VIII.13) – this is Ambrose's evening hymn
	Cant. IX – XI	Easter Monday – morning	“About the hour when the sad swallow... pipes out her mournful way to greet the dawn” (IX.13-15)
	Canto XII	Easter Monday – noon	“Look how the day's sixth handmaiden resigns her office now” (XII.80-81)
	Cant. XIII – XVII	Easter Monday – afternoon	“When I first spied the sun again, which now was near to sinking” (XVII.9)
	Cant. XVII – XVIII	Easter Monday – evening	“Retarded near to midnight now, the moon... was making the stars appear but dimly strewn” (XVIII.76-78)
	Cant. XIX – XXIV	Easter Tuesday – morning	“Broad day had masterdom now of the holy mountain's every ledge” (XIX.37-38)
	Cant. XXV – XXVI	Easter Tuesday – afternoon	“The Sun had to the Bull transferred” (XXV.2) = 2pm
	Canto XXVII	Easter Tuesday – evening	“As when his earliest shaft of light assails the city where his Maker shed His blood... so rode the sun; thus day was nightward winging” (XXVII.1-5). Dante places Purgatory in the southern hemisphere. When it is dawn in Jerusalem, it is sunset on Mount Purgatory
	Cant. XXVII – XXXIII	Easter Wednesday – morning	“The shades of darkness fled away all round” (XXVII.112)

Paradiso doesn't follow a particular time scheme. But you can see from this table that most of the reading is to be done on the Saturday. It's quite a challenging reading schedule.