Less than one hour’s drive from Lucca on a gloriously warm and sunny Sunday morning

Setting off after the usual breakfast, two cappuccini and a pastry of ham, tomato and cheese known as a valdostana, I left Lucca heading east along Via Romana towards Altopascio avoiding the main roads. From Altopascio I headed south-east along the SP11 past the Riserva Naturale Poggio Adorno and on past Fucecchio hugging the twisting River Arno until turning north along the SP13 and on to Vinci. Here the views are breathtakingly beautiful of hills and valleys cultivated with vineyards and olive trees. 

Although Vinci has the status of a città it is in fact a small partly walled hilltop commune that lies in the hills of Montalbano. Dominating the town is the tower of the Castello and the Chiesa di Santa Croce where the young Leonardo was baptised. Several small museums and a piazza pay homage to Leonardo’s lifetime interests in engineering, mathematics and geometry.

However, it is the small farmhouse property that lies 3 km outside Vinci to the north where Caterina, Leonardo’s mother came from, known as Anchiano that held the greatest interest for me. The property is described as a labourer’s dwelling with an adjoining slightly grander ‘master’s’ house. 

The details of Leonard’s illegitimate birth on 15th April 1452 were proudly documented by his grandfather Antonio who stated it was his first grandson. Leonardo’s father, Ser Piero d’Antonio was a notary and subsequently married several other women and had legitimate children totalling ten sons and two daughters. Caterina also subsequently had several other children from a marriage with a man described as a labourer with an aggressive temperament. Although this placed Leonardo between several sets of families with many half siblings, he was apparently brought with some degree of affection, particularly by his uncle, within his father’s household. 

After Leonardo’s grandfather died in 1468, the family had within a year moved to Florence. His father managed to get Leonardo an apprenticeship as a painter within the workshop of the then highly influential sculptor, painter and goldsmith, the Florentine master Andrea Verrocchio. As a precocious talent even at an early age Leonardo was able to surpass the talents of his master and at the age of twenty in 1472 he was enrolled as a master in the Company of Painters. The rest, as they say, is history in both art and science as he became one of the greatest artists and inquiring minds in the history of mankind.

The Casa Natale was subject to a major renovation in June 2012 and serves to underline the simplicity and tranquillity of the place. Touch screens provide digital reproductions of Leonardo’s work and most famous paintings. By using a cleverly interpreted life-size hologram of Leonardo, the ‘museological’ exhibition provides an enchanting description in Italian and English that reflects on his life and thoughts as an elderly man. The total experience at Anchiano gives a remarkable sense of intimacy with the aspects of Leonardo’s early life in such a unique and beautiful setting near Vinci. Recommended.    www.casanataledileonardo.it