Leonardo Da Vinci
Chapter One
Searching for the Man
In the eighth year of my near-idolatrous fascination with the life of Leonardo
da Vinci, I made a pilgrimage to the house where he was born. Or so I thought.
It was 1985, and my wife, Sarah, and I were in Florence. On our second morning
in the city, without a moment's forethought, we precipitously decided to visit
Vinci, where neither of us had been before.
What better place to go for directions than the Museo di Storia della Scienza?
Finding it closed, I knocked on the massive wooden door, and to my surprise it
was opened just a crack by a woman who heard me out and then went inside to ask
the direttore for advice. She quickly returned with her boss, and Sarah and I
soon found ourselves on the train to Empoli, a distance of about twelve
kilometers. From there we took a short bus ride to Vinci. Vinci proved to be a
town indistinguishable from most others in the area, except that it had a small
museum where models of Leonardo-inspired machines were available for inspection.
And there was something else. Large signs pointed the way ... read full excerpt from: Leonardo da Vinci: A Life ebook
