Where: We “travel” from Vinci to the Fucecchio Marshes
When: From May to October
What: History and nature
To resolve doubts and make discoveries, driven by curiosity by that internal fervor that
“moves us further” … like that tumult that accompanied Leonardo da Vinci throughout his life. Let’s
follow that instinct and move along an emotional and immersive path, in this simple and in some
ways familiar nature, in these green hills full of rows of vines and ancient olive trees. We arrive in
Vinci, a village where the eye already sees the Genius through the copy of the Vitruvian Man that
stands in the square below the museum. We enter the Museum Tower, imagine listening to the
ancient noise of the mechanisms of the inventions of this great master and then we go out again
from the walls looking at the surrounding nature, the same as the artist, inventor and painter who –
in the only drawing with a certain date arrived at us through the centuries and now exhibited in the
Uffizi Gallery – represents the Doccia Mill, a few steps from where we are now.
A few kilometers from Vinci there is a large marshy area which is also the scene of Leonardo’s
great experiments. The Fucecchio Marshes opens up. We put on rubber boots and hats to get on the
old little boats led by ‘boatmen’ who accompany us to discover a mixture of sounds and noises of
slowly moving water, the croaking of frogs and a myriad of birdsong, masters of this natural
wonder. The small boat moves slowly in order to have time to stop a flight, a particular light, a
reflection on the water and the gaze of the driver with the camera. We become a present experience
thinking of those who have studied and safeguarded all this over the centuries.
