On Leonardo Da Vinci Footsteps

Visiting Milano will make you discover not only the city of Fashion but one of the places where Leonardo da Vinci lived.

This daily tour is perfect for those who want to know more about the private and artistic life of Leonardo da Vinci, the Italian genius of Renaissance. Leonardo da Vinci was one of the greatest painters in the history of art, also he was a scientist and inventor.

Our guide will reveal secrets and tidbits about his private life and try to make light on Da Vinci’s obscure life. Leonardo was famous for being very grumpy and misanthropic. During his life, Leonardo developed close relationships with his male students and one of his biggest stories, lasting almost 20 years, was with a “curly-haired youth” named Gian Giacomo de Caprotti also known as Salai (Lamb of Satan) due to his misbehaviour.

The day tour starts visiting the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana where The Atlantic Code, a twelve-volume collection with 1,119 pages of drawings and writings is kept. Here you will be able to see a lot of artwork and the sketches that Leonardo did for his inventions. Most of them were the base for the technology that we use nowadays. During the tour you will be able to see the painting “ritratto di musico” by Leonardo da Vinci and the “Canestra di frutta” by Caravaggio.

The Ambrosiana Gallery is now a scientific community, promoting intercultural exchange and dialogue, since 1600. Its strong identity is meant to boost ‘contamination’ in several fields of knowledge and share them to the audience. Beyond an astonishing Leonardo’s portrait of Salai, here is the Atlantic Codex, a collection of more than 1119 notes, drawings and research concerning mathematics, astronomy, optics, fables and food recipes, pictures of water pumps, war machines and parachutes. The Atlantic Codex is well conserved here since 1637, as the Ambrosiana Library was one of the first public libraries in Europe.

When Leonardo arrived in Milan he started to design military equipment for the Duke, Ludovico Sforza. His biggest creation at the Sforza Castle, residence of the Duke, was the ‘Sala delle Asse’, a project painting an astonishing ceiling. He also organized some events at the castle, using the machines he invented. The beauty of the scenery he created, left all the guests astonished.

The most important moment is when you visit ‘The Last Supper’, the mysterious fresco which Dan Brown’s Bestseller “The Da Vinci Code” talks about. This mural, situated at the Church Santa Maria delle Grazie, is one of Leonardo’s biggest art works not only due to the tecniques but also for its psychological depth. Here you will see that Leonardo skillfully uses shadow and light to show the characters and what they represented.