Vinci: A Visit to Leonardo’s Home Town Travel books often limit
the town of Vinci to a short paragraph. The town is off-the-
beaten track and eclipsed by its more famous neighbors -
Florence and Pisa. Despite these handicaps, Vinci receives as
many as 500,000 visitors per year. They come in search of its
most famous son, Leonardo. The Renaissance giant lived here from
the time of his birth in 1452 until the mid-1460s, when he and
his family moved to Florence. Visitors discover the imaginative
works of Leonardo as both engineer and artist. They are infused
with the scenic countryside; Tuscan scenes are often depicted as
background in Leonardo’s art like the Mona Lisa and the Last
Supper. VinciVinci, a quiet, unimposing hill town, is unchanged
from the time of Leonardo. The Maestro would feel very much at
home if he walked the narrow streets of today. The community is
a cluster of houses built around a medieval stone tower known as
the Castello dei Conti Guidi. The castello and cluster form an
elongated shape re