Yay! It was time for another Day Of Fun™! Due to our friend’s love of history, and that fact that we hadn’t been to it in ages, we decided to drive out to the village of Vinci. Yes, that place, where your man is from – Frank… nah, just kidding, Leonardo, of course.. While perhaps not quite from the village, it is said that he lived in a house up in the hills nearby. Scholars (and charlatans, probably), can’t be 100% precise where he lived, but they have all settled on a particular house, based on his writings and some drawings of the nearby landscape. We had been to the village before, seen the museum and even eaten there – but this was before I started blogging or vlogging. So, this is effectively net new to you guys.

What isn’t net new, is that I went on a lovely walk. This was going to be (mostly) a lovely day, so the colours are lush and were not unwelcome. Enjoy!

As you can see, I kept it inside the walls this time around. I then to it to the top of the walls to have a look at the beautiful countryside surrounding the town.

After breakfasting and abluting we walked to the car, and drove the hour or so there. There’s handy parking, but it’s at the bottom of the town and it’s a mild uphill walk through the new part of town before you hit the museum ticket office.

There were only a couple of small groups ahead of us. While we waited, we marveled at the little birds who had nested in the ticket office. Anyway, when we go to the front, he completely blanked my wonderful “Tre studenti, per favore.” and paid complete attention to Niamh and my friend, who were obviously the adults in the group. We got our tix (which incidentally cover entry to Leonardo’s childhood home outside the town) and headed up the ramp immediately outside, into the old town.

I assure you that there actually some people there! One of the great things about having a car at your disposal is that you get to visit tons of places most tourists will never see – even one as culturally significant as Vinci. We walked through the old town’s laneways, had a look at Leonardo’s possible place of baptism, and admired some modern sculpture, before entering the exhibitions themselves. A couple of things to note here: firstly, these exhibitions relate to his engineering and anatomical studies and feats, not his art – and second, I don’t have many photos, as I was taking video at the time.

Ok, there is also a third thing: it was mercilessly hot in the building. They only had air-conditioning turned on in one room, in which we sat down for a little while.

The museum itself is fascinating, and contains many miniatures and working models of his machines. I lamented how he had to turn to making war machines to satisfy his benefactors and make a living. One curious thing – they had a huge model of the wings for humans, spread across the ceiling of one of the rooms. When we were reviewing the photos after, the ladies were astonished – neither of them had seen it!

We were hungry, and when looking for a place to eat, we came across a little piazzetta in which there were statues of Leonardo da Vinci and Qi Baishi (Chinese painter) by a Japanese sculptor. I have no idea why I have no photos nor video of these, as they were quite lovely. Such is life. Anyway, we were hungry and spotted a couple of snacky-restaurants below. Now, usually I’d run away from these types of places in obviously touristy areas, but I wasn’t getting the ‘we’re here to fleece you’ vibe from it, so we gave it a bash.

And I’m glad we did! The food was above average, but the people serving were so chatty and lovely – I live for these kinds of random interactions. We were just talking about where we came from, and if we’d visited here or there – nothing World-changing, but just… nice!

Before heading back to the car to try to find Leonardo’s gaff, we first entered a tiny souvenir place where I desperately tried to find some t-shirts that fit me – some of the designs were cheesy but fun. Sadly, most shops in Italy don’t cater for the larger gentleman. I lost 22.5 kg (50 lbs) when I was very ill with generalised anxiety disorder. Now that I’m (mostly) out of that, I’ve since put that and more back on – I need to lose weight. But even when I was at my skinniest, buying clothes in Italy was a huge challenge! I bought one anyway as a ‘promise’ to myself to fit into it.

Then we drove up the steep and wriggling road to where Leonardo’s house is said to be. Parking is easy, and there thankfully was a refreshments van there too, which we made use of on the way back.

We walked across the narrow road, and through a small olive grove until we reached the complex, of which Leonardo’s birth home is a part. A nice young man took our tickets and we entered the building. It’s not particularly big – just a few rooms. The room to the right contains a little diorama indicating Leonardo’s travels and other memorabilia. The room to the left had the most interesting thing: a projected mini-documentary where a lone actor playing Leonardo tells his life story, but through his love of his mother. This is definitely worth catching. Italian and English versions play alternately, and there is another room in the modern part of the complex, which it also plays it on a small TV – I’d catch the more immersive version in his house, if I were you. I didn’t take many photos, because I was taking video instead (see below).

We strolled around outside after, taking photos and video. Then we walked back to the car, got ourselves some refreshments back at the van (it was a hot old day!) and drove home.

Except we didn’t get as far as the apartment, did we?

And we didn’t quite stop at Antica Velathri Café. It was golden hour, so we raided Piazzetta Fornelli to check out the sunset. We met another friend there, and took photos of each other in between sips of aperitivi.

We were getting hungry (what else is new?), and thought we’d give one of our favourite places a bash: La Taverna della Terra di Mezzo. We just love Robbi and Aurora, the owner and waitress respectively – and the food is good – especially the meats. So that’s just what we had: a big, flip-off Florentine steak.

We were finishing up our meal when we heard a bit of a cacophony approaching Via Gramsci (where the restaurant lies). It turns out it was the feast of Saint Clement and Giusto – so there was a protracted procession of the town’s finest, chanting and holding candles while responding to a cleric on a loudhailer. You can catch this in the video just below:

And that was our day! I hope you enjoyed the read. Give me a shout with any comments/queries!