“But that ungrateful malicious people, who descended from Fiesole in ancient times, and still holds the mountain and the boulder”

Dante, Inferno XV, 61-63

Greetings friends! Amy and I just wrapped up 9 glorious days in Florence, making a deep cultural dive into this incredible city for our 34th wedding anniversary. This was a return journey for me 44 years in the making as I first visited this city in 1979, as a restless 16 year old traveling across Europe with my family. My memories of that time are a blurr – a few museums, blowing through my depreciating lire, gelato at night after dinner, and a fierce negotiation on the Ponte Vecchio for a black leather backgammon board which I still own to this day.

For this journey we booked an Air BNB in the heart of Oltrarno (the “other side” of the Arno river) which turned out to be a perfect location in the quieter, more rustic side of Florence. (Side note to any future Florence traveler: book an air BNB as close to the Piazza Della Pasero in Oltrarno as possible and you can thank me later!)

The cultural and historical paths you can chase in Florence are basically endless, but truth be told my primary interest in this trip was singular. I wanted to immerse myself in the world of Leonardo Da Vinci, born in the Tuscan hill country outside of Florence, apprenticed in the workshop of Verrocchio in the heart of Florence, whose genius was nurtured and cultivated by the patrons of Florence, during 15th century renaissance.

Our weather forecast was dubious going in, but most days were like the photo below – a mix of sun and clouds and most importantly, moderate temperatures, so no sun screen required. We did get hit with a couple of rain squalls, which were actually refreshing as they bathed the ancient cobblestone streets, and gave the city a shimmering glow in the evening.

Part 1: Leonardo’s masterpieces in the Uffizi

There are only something like 10-12 Leonardo Da Vinci paintings that can be seen in public, three of which are in the Uffizi, the great art museum of Florence. We secured an early 9 am reservation on the first day of our trip – critical to beat the crowds which surge around 11 am. Room 35 is the Sala de Leonardo, and safe to say the three paintings in this room are worth north of $500 million each if they ever made their way to Sothebys (the last Da Vinci sold on the open market, “Salvador Mundi” sold for $450 million and the provenance of this painting is dubious – it may not actually be a Da Vinci).

The lights are dimmed low in Sala Leonardo, to enhance the intimacy and emotional power of each work, one on each wall. On the right “The Annunciation” , Leonardo’s first solo work, completed in the 1470s when he was in his early 20s. There are flaws in perspective in this work, but Leonardo’s budding genius is already apparent (just look at the shading work in Mary’s blue dress for example). BTW the black horizontal line above the painting is the seam of the glare proof security glass.

On the center wall, directly across from the entrance is the “Adoration of the Magi”, a hauntingly beautiful work that remains unfinished. You will see dozens of “Adoration” paintings while wandering the museums and churches of Florence, but none of them compare to Leonardo’s version, which is a maelstrom of human emotion, rearing horses and crumbling classical architecture. The detached soldier in lower right corner is likely a self portrait of Leonardo – then around 26.

The third painting on the left wall of the Leonardo Room is “The Baptism of Christ”, however I am going to hold off discussion of this painting to part three of this post.

Part 2: Leonardo in Milan

One of the great things about basing in Florence is you can catch high speed rail to Milan and be there in two hours. Amy and I hopped on the 7:55 am Frecciarosa bullet train in Florence and pulled into Milano Centrale at 9:50. Why Milan? Because several more priceless Da Vinci works are all in close, walking distance of each other and can be seen in 3-4 hours.

Our first stop was Santa Maria delle Grazie Church and Monastery – home of LDV’s sensational “Last Supper”. Access to this painting is tightly controlled. Only 35 people are permitted to view this painting at a time to control excess humidity from human breathing, with 15 minutes maximum viewing time. The reason its faded out is because it was painted using the fresco technique which can mean steady deterioration over time with fluctuations in humidity. What you see now is a result of a 22 year restoration by a woman who viewed every square centimeter under a microscope, removed the grime and errors of previous botched restorations, and brought this painting back from the brink.

I could go on and on, but what is most striking about this painting is the masterful use of optics, shading and perspective to create the illusion of an extending refectory dining room on a completely flat surface. Leonardo captured the natural light which enters the room from windows high on the left wall and thus he illuminated or shaded every object in the painting accordingly.

The other striking detail of the painting is the range of emotions on every face as Christ reveals he has been betrayed. That’s Judas 2nd from Jesus’s left clutching a bag of silver coins and Peter directly behind him holding a knife.

After our morning tour Amy and I split up, and she toured the Cathedral while I raced across town to my second appointment of the day at the Pinoteca Ambrosiana. This museum is a hidden gem which houses still more Leonardo treasures (not to mention a Botticelli, Raphael and Carravagio).

Leonardo painted “Portrait of a Young Musician” in the 1480s while living in Milan. Its his only known portrait of a man and you can enjoy this painting up super close, right at eye level (but of course it’s protected by security glass). I could see smudge prints, finger prints and the most lifelike, mesmerizing eyes I have ever seen in a painting. In fact on close observation you can see the iris in the left eye is dilated smaller than the right eye – a natural response to the light source coming over his left shoulder.

There is one additional special collection of Leonardo’s in the Pinoteca Ambrosiana. Leonardo basically journaled and doodled every day of his adult life, and these journals – or Codexes – are in private collections all over the world (Bill Gates owns one). The Pinoteca Ambrosiana owns the “Codex Atlanticus” with 16 pages on permanent display in the bishop’s library. Here are some photos from this extraordinary collection.

16 pages of the Codex Atlanticus are displayed on the floor of the library In humidity controlled Iluminated cases. As you can see the library consisted of three levels of ancient manuscripts dating back to the middle ages. Most of the Codex pages on display consisted of mathematical and engineering studies completed between 1480 – 1513. Leonardo was obsessed with geometric shapes and principles and specifically the concept of “squaring the circle” to achieve mathematical rationality in a circular object. Note his right to left backward handwriting. Leonardo was left-handed and he developed this unique writing style so he would not smudge the ink with his palm as his pen traveled across the page.

Part 3: Fiesole, Piazalle Leonardo and the Bruschi Quarry

Ok this final part of the Leonardo Quest was not in the guidebooks! On the recommendation of my Aunt Kaye, Amy and I took a taxi to Fiesole, a hill town 14 kms out of town with a commanding view of Florence from the East. We explored an ancient Etruscan/Roman antiquity there, grabbed lunch and then decided to hike to the top of adjacent Monte Ceceri to stretch our legs and get some nature. We just started following the dotted line paths on Gaia GPS and soon narrow paved roads became an ancient walking path. I felt like I was back in Galicia, Spain on the Camino!

Presently, we came to a sign board as we entered the nature park and to my amazement we were now on a walking path to Piazzale Leonardo da Vinci….. wait what?? I thought we were hiking to the top of Monte Ceceri?

Well it turns out the top of Monte Ceceri is the Piazzale Leonardo Da Vinci and in fact the exact location where Leonardo carefully observed the mechanics of birds in flight. From these observations Leonardo was the first human being to design human powered flying machines – the precursers of today’s helicopters, airplanes and hang gliders. Wow, we could not believe the way this casual mountain hike had morphed into another chapter in our Da Vinci quest!

We took an alternative path on the way down the mountain which led us past several ancient rock quarries. Monte Ceceri was the source of most of the stone columns and bricks that adorn Florence, and the primitive townsfolk of Fiesole were the “ungrateful, malicious people” Dante referred to in the opening quote of this post.

As we strolled through the quarries it dawned on me that I had seen these images before. Recall earlier in this post I told you would defer comments about “The Baptism of Christ” the 3rd Da Vinci painting hanging in the Uffizi.

Da Vinci collaborated on this painting with his tutor, Verrocchio, and Da Vinci was tasked with painting the gorgeous angel at far left as well as the water flowing around Jesus’s feet, and the background landscape images. Take a close look at the background landscape rocks at right and you can see a striking resemblance with the rocks in these quarries. In fact many Da Vinci paintings, including the Mona Lisa, contain stratiated rock background images and it stands to reason his climbs up Monte Ceceri planted these visions in his imagination.

As we hiked down from Mt Ceceri in search of our bus stop back to Florence, we came across this stone carving laying next to the trail. Two flying machines carved in stone most of us can easily recognize. On top Da Vinci’s vision of a self propelled ornithopter permitting man to escape gravity, and one day achieve flight. On bottom the Star Ship Enterprise – Boldly going where no man has gone before! What a poignant message about the incomparable impact of one man on the human species.

Ciao!