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the Leonardo Museum at Vinci.

VINCI
Leonardo's Home Town

The environs

About 3 km from Vinci, at Anchiano, lies the house where Leonardo was born. It was restored in 1986 and adds an interesting finishing touch to a tour of the museum. The landscape surrounding the house is still very similar to the one Leonardo had contemplated and drawn since childhood. That is why it was decided, during the repairs, to decorate the house with examples of how Leonardo was able to "see" and interpret nature. Inside the house are the reproductions of several drawings representing views of the Tuscan countryside and a map of the Arno valley, traced by Leonardo himself.

At present, a new museum building is being prepared in the proximity of the Conti Guidi Castle to host the "Leda di Vinci", a superb painting from the school of Leonardo, assigned to the borough of Vinci by the Minister of Fine Arts. The new museum will be devoted to the theme of Leonardo the painter, thus completing and encapsulating the Leonardian itinerary of the museum, birthplace and library.

The arrival of the " Leda" at Vinci will thus fill "the gap caused by the lack of any original work by Leonardo or his group in his native town".

The Vinci itinerary is completed by Leonardo's Library, which now represents an authoritative reference point for the study of the works and thoughts of Leonardo and his times. The collection includes the complete series of reproductions of Leonardo's manuscripts and drawings and a detailed documentation in many languages of the most important publications and monographs.

Since 1972, the Museum of the Agricultural Community has stood in Via Montalbano, in the historical centre . It forms a part of the great Castle Cellars and includes the collection of a vast range of antique farming implements. After large-scale renovations, the new "Ideal Leonardo da Vinci Museum of Art and the Utopia of Science" has also been dedicated to the exposition of material from various exhibitions on Leonardo which have taken place in recent years both in Italy and abroad.

Apart from Leonardo, other famous people are associated with Vinci: another great artist from the same family was born here, the sculptor Pierfrancesco da Vinci, known as Pierino (around 1530 - 1554), Leonardo's nephew to whom Vasari dedicated one of his famous "Vite"; at Dianella there are the house and tomb of the poet Renato Fucini; the national hero Giuseppe Garibaldi lived, in 1867, as a guest in the two historical villas of the Ferrales and the Martellis.

Again within the borough, 4 km from the chief town, is the "Pieve di San Giovanni in Greti" at San Ansano. Mentioned in a diploma of Ottone III in the year 998, it stands as one of the most interesting monuments of Romanesque art in the Tuscan countryside.

Moreover, Vinci is famous for the excellence and authenticity of its local products, its extra virgin olive oil and wines (Chianti Putto Montalbano, Chianti D.O.C.G. ).

Vinci promotes various cultural events throughout the year: the Leonardo celebrations in April and the July Fair which, in the past few years, has revived the traditional historical commemoration of the "Flight of Cecco Santi" from the Castle Tower.