Practically everyone has seen at least once, a picture of Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci, one of the most famous paintings in the world.
Logically the attention of viewers usually focuses on Mona Lisa and her enigmatic and charming smile, while people perhaps pay less attention to the background.
To give a meaning to the little story I'm trying to tell you by my pictures, you should make an effort to neglect Mona Lisa and to analyze instead the landscape on her back.
This painting by Leonardo is one of the first portraits to show the subject in front of a panoramic landscape, but the landscape was considered by many as a pure creation of Leonardo's imagination, a totally imaginary place.
Many experts, on the contrary, tend today to think that the landscape represents a real place in Tuscany.
One of the elements which should allow us to identify the background of Mona Lisa in a real geographical context is the bridge you can see, in the painting, behind her shoulder, on the left.
The bridge painted by Leonardo is very similar to Buriano Bridge, which still exists today and you can see in my photos.
This medieval bridge is spanning the river Arno in the north of Arezzo, along a road called la strada dei sette ponti (the road of Seven Bridges).
When Leonardo Da Vinci was in the area to make a map of the region, he surely crossed the bridge many times.
Therefore, some say that the bridge of the Mona Lisa is this bridge.