La Strada Verde (Path 14)

Hilltop walking path linking Vinci to Leonardo's birthplace through olive groves

Path 14 — locally called the Strada Verde, or Green Road — runs from the center of Vinci up through the olive groves to the hamlet of Anchiano, where Leonardo was born. The walk takes about an hour at a comfortable pace and climbs steadily through terraced groves that look much as they would have in the fifteenth century. The path is well-marked and begins near the Museo Leonardiano.

The route passes through some of the most characteristic landscape of the Montalbano ridge — ancient olives on stone terraces, views across the Arno valley, the occasional stone farmhouse. It is the natural way to connect the two Leonardo sites rather than driving, and for anyone with any interest in the Renaissance it is a genuinely moving walk. The descent is equally good, either returning by the same path or looping back through the lower slopes.

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This is the same hillside landscape Leonardo drew obsessively as a young man — those terraced olive groves, the rocky outcrops, the light in the valley. The path connects the town to Anchiano in roughly an hour, and walking it gives you a better sense of what shaped his eye than any museum display.

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