Date 8 Tuscany: Vinci

Today’s jaunt was to Vinci, near to where Leonardo da Vinci was born.   The town is quite attractive and is very much dedicated to profiting from its link to its famous son, but it is not overrun with tourists.    It also a great place to take in views of the surrounding countryside.

We first visited the museum, which  is divided into two buildings.  In the first,  the focus is on his engineering developments and inventions - particularly pulleys, devices focussed on spinning and weaving and gold foil beating machines.

Upstairs, the focus is on his studies of anatomy, and wax representations of his drawings have been created to demonstrate in three dimensions how much of an understanding of the human body he had.

The second  part of the museum is within the castle of the Conti Guidi, and includes the remains of some of the original frescos, and more models of da Vinci's work, this time of various machines like boats, a bicycle, a self propelling automobile,  a flying machine, and a working model of his device for loading stones used to make domes and spires.

Outside, on the  walls of the buildings,is a sculpture of a magpie stealing spoons and its nest, called La Gazza -Ladra 1817-2017 ( The Thieving Magpie 1817-2017)  by Emmanuel Chapalain.

 If you climb the tower to the bell at the top,

 you get a truly magnificent view of the town and the surrounding countryside.

We also visited  the  Church of Santa Croce where Leonardo is supposed to have been christened.    It had some quite nice stained glass windows and rather good modern sculptures by  Cecco Bonanotte.

 Dotted around the town, there are a lot of works by artists, many who have been influenced by da Vinci.  Outside in the square is an interpretation of his work by an artist, Mario Ceroli.

Mimmo Paladino contributed this piece.

There are lots of  other pieces dotted around, like these wonderful sheep and stars.

 After all the climbing up and down of stairs this town involves, we decided to forgo the visit to his house, and set off to try and find  a doctor for one of our companions in a neighbouring town.  First stop was Lamporecchio,  which is fairly utilitarian rather than pretty, and the second was the rather plain Larciano.  It showed us that although this region is very lovely, it is really a centre for wine, olive and cheese production, as well as factories.  Beauty does not pay bills.