Vinci - Tuesday

Today wasn't the best day for technology. Two attempts to post the blog from our day in Siena failed this morning when Blogger ate the entire thing. We finally got it posted late in the day, but Blogger was then having problems uploading pictures. Hopefully things will be straightened out there by the time you view this, and you will be able to see both yesterday's and today's pix.

Our GPS wasn't fully charged and started giving out low battery indications well before we had arrived at our destination, let alone before we started back home. It also had a difficult time with the complicated internals of one centuries-old town. Fortunately we were able to conserve the remaining battery capacity by only turning it on at critical times. Tomorrow we bring the car charger with us!

Enough griping. Today's destination was Vinci, home of Leonardo. It was also special to us as Vinci is Cathy's maiden name, though her family came from Sicily with no known trace back up to this part of the country. But that aside, it's always a thrill to see your own name up in the signs.

Once we got past the industrial zone at the edge of town, Vinci proved to be a lovely place. Quite hilly, city walls, old church, houses with beautiful doorways, all the things you would expect. Lots of cats wandering around, asking to be patted. We had lunch at a sidewalk café on the Piazza Leonardo da Vinci, across from city hall. There was a plaque on the city hall commemorating the liberation of Vinci by the Americans and British in 1944. We guess that Il Duce hadn't quite succeeded in winning the hearts and minds of the people here.

Then we wandered through a small museum and castle dedicated to Leonardo. It mostly featured contemporary models made from many of his drawings—winches, cranes, textile processing machinery, a machine for stamping out gold leaf, optical experiments, clocks, multi-barrel weapons, a battle tank with 360 degree firepower and mobility, quick-erecting military bridges, diving apparatus, flotation shoes, flying machines, and more. What a guy! If only he had had access to the right materials and construction techniques. Bruce coveted a working clock apparently constructed from his designs and sold in the gift shops, but at €75 and with finite suitcase capacity he reluctantly declined the opportunity and settled for a small book.

Beautiful views from the city walls.

Crossed the Arno River on the way to and from town. Very, very wide channel, mostly unoccupied. Saw another completely dry channel leading into it. Recalling the floods of 1966 we guess that these are safety measures which might actually fill up all the way on occasion. We will say more about the floods tomorrow when we visit Florence.

Drive back at rush hour. GPS steered us through a tricky u-turn on the Autostrada. Check e-mail. Pasta supper at our place. Chianti.