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This is the first of three caches related to Leonardo in Milan.
Leonardo was born in Vinci, near Florence, the illegitimate son of a Florentine lawyer and a young country girl. He was brought up in his father's house and around the age of 15 was apprenticed to the artist Andrea del Verrochio. About 1482 Leonardo entered the service of the duke of Milan, Ludovico Sforza, having written the duke an astonishing letter in which he stated that he could build portable bridges; that he knew the techniques of constructing bombardments and of making cannons; that he could build ships as well as armored vehicles, catapults, and other war machines; and that he could execute sculpture in marble, bronze, and clay. He served as principal engineer in the duke's numerous military enterprises and was active also as an architect. In addition, he assisted the Italian mathematician Luca Pacioli in the celebrated work Divina Proportione (1509). Evidence indicates that Leonardo had apprentices and pupils in Milan, for whom he probably wrote the various texts later compiled as Treatise on Painting (1651; translated 1956). The most important of his own paintings during the early Milan period was The Virgin of the Rocks, two versions of which exist (1483-1485, Louvre, Paris; 1490s to 1506-1508, National Gallery, London); he worked on the compositions for a long time, as was his custom, seemingly unwilling to finish what he had begun. From 1495 to 1497 Leonardo labored on his masterpiece, The Last Supper, a mural in the refectory of the Monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan. Unfortunately, his experimental use of oil on dry plaster (on what was the thin outer wall of a space designed for serving food) was technically unsound, and by 1500 its deterioration had begun. Since 1726 attempts have been made, unsuccessfully, to restore it; a concerted restoration and conservation program, making use of the latest technology, was begun in 1977 and is reversing some of the damage. Although much of the original surface is gone, the majesty of the composition and the penetrating characterization of the figures give a fleeting vision of its vanished splendor.
During his long stay in Milan, Leonardo also produced other paintings and drawings (most of which have been lost), theater designs, architectural drawings, and models for the dome of Milan Cathedral. His largest commission was for a colossal bronze monument to Francesco Sforza, father of Ludovico, in the courtyard of Castello Sforzesco. In December 1499, however, the Sforza family was driven from Milan by French forces; Leonardo left the statue unfinished (it was destroyed by French archers, who used the terra cotta model as a target) and he returned to Florence in 1500.
This is the first of three caches related to Leonardo in Milan.
The Navigli are the characteristic channels of Milan, which once ran along the whole city as way of transportation, making Milan somewhat similar to Venice. Leonardo studied how to connect two of the biggest channels in order to connect not only the two opposite parts of the city, but also to connect the two biggest rivers of Lombardy (Adda and Ticino).
In the Conca dell’Incoronata, in the nice Brera neighbourhood, you can see the remains of one sluice gate with an improvement studied by Leonardo, the small hatch in the lower part operable from the street-level, to better regulate the water flow. Here is where the "Leonardo 1" cache can be found.
This cache is a microcache made with a small breath strip container, painted black, magnetic. It contains only a logbook, so bring a pen. It measures only 5x3x1 cm. Difficulty was set to 2 because this cache is located in the city, where sometimes, due to the tall buildings and small streets, GPS reception can be not so good.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Ba gur oevqtr