Investigating who Leonardo da Vinci really was….

Making a beeline for the Leonardo da Vinci museum, we practically ran through the streets towards this novel and informative museum… Lottie was so inspired, we have another video blog entry in the final stages of completion as both girls marvelled at the genius’s inventions… So here’s a few fun facts we learnt.. He wasn’t actually a Prolific Painter Leonardo da Vinci left fewer than 30 paintings and most were unfinished. Perhaps that’s why he’s so well remembered for his hundreds of drawings, sketches, and pages of notes. Where’s his Sculptures? There are no pieces of sculpture that can definitely be attributed to Leonardo, even though art historians know he learned sculpture when an art apprentice in Verrocchio’s studio.

Expensive Paper Makes for Messy Notebooks Paper was far more expensive and harder to get hold of in Leonardo’s day than it is today. Which is why he made more intensive use of it, “filling” most of every page. He was a Vegetarian Unusually for the era in which he lived, Leonardo was a vegetarian, for humanitarian reasons. Not that this stopped him from dissecting humans to study anatomy and to map out where the human soul was, nor from taking a job as a designer of military weapons at one stage. What He Didn’t Invent Leonardo invented, or drew up plans and sketches for a great number of things. But the telescope wasn’t one of them. Nor gears, ratchets, pulley systems, or screws; these already existed.

Time was flying, but there was still so much to see

Did you know that one of the world’s top art museums can be found in Florence. The Uffizi Gallery houses some of the most important works of the Renaissance, including works by Leonardo da Vinci, Giotto, Botticelli and Michelangelo and a large collection of Greek and Roman sculptures. It’s pretty pricey but time it right and they offer free entry once a month (see here for details). This glorious city is the very cradle of Renaissance Italy. With art lovers flocking to its medieval centre for a close-up of famous paintings by the likes of Raphael and Michelangelo. Sadly time got the better of us, so we raced through to the Uffizi but enjoyed the chance to see the statue of David…. If we’d more time, we would have visited for longer but we needed to head south before nightfall so back we traipsed to the aire/parking… (for any other motorhoming families reading this, it’s an easy uphill 20mins walks that allows ample time for some food shopping and a gelato…)