The town of Vinci is one of the "Renaissance Lands" par excellence, since it was the hometown to the great artist and scientist Leonardo da Vinci. It lies over the Montalbano valley, in the province of Florence, and it has about 14000 inhabitants.

The "castrum" of Vinci was raised while the Counts Guidi and Alberti, who were powerful feudatories often in clash with other growing city-states, were enlarging their territories. The success of the Guidi in these areas took place in 1120, when they were invested by Frederick II. Nevertheless, this was also the period of decadence of the Counts and the territory fell under the rule of Florence shortly after.
The inhabitants of Vinci, who were deeply rooted in the medieval era, rebelled against the Republic in 1315 by deploying an army headed by Uguccione della Faggiuola. They surrendered three years later.
In 1320, the town underwent a new devastation after the descent of the Castruccio Castracani's Pisans troops. After the peace of Montopoli, a period of truce between Florence and Pisa started until the conflict blasted again in the second half of the XIV century, when the town was engaged in taming John Hackwood's troops, first, and in avoiding an action led by some anti-Repubblican Florentines, later. The inhabitants of Vinci also succeeded into driving the Spanish troops away, during the arrival of Charles V in Tuscany at the half of the XVI century.
Leonardo da Vinci was born in Vinci around 1452. The town has celebrated him with the opening of a Museo Leonardiano, enriched by a library inside the fortress of the Guidi, and also by a private gallery called "Museo Ideale Leonardo da Vinci di Arte, Utopia e Cultura della Terra", which is inside the cellars of the castle.
The house where the author of the "Gioconda" was born and spent part of his childhood is still preserved at two kilometres from the town's centre. The churches of San Bartolomeo in Sovigliana and of Santa Croce can be admired in Vinci. Instead, the ancient Romanesque parish of San Giovanni in Greti, located in Sant'Ansano, dating to the X century, at least, since it was reported in a document written by the emperor Otto III in 997, can be admired at four kilometres from the chief town.
Vinci, that has always been a flourishing agricultural centre, is famous for the production of the Chianti wine AOCG and of a high-quality oil. Yet, an intense industrial activity has been siding the agricultural production in the last century. It regards clothes, wood, food packaging, shoes as well as the more traditional productions of glass and pottery.