a man in an all white medieval costume and white face paint walking in an alley

See where Leonardo da Vinci still walks the streets

Peek inside the world of Renaissance re-enactors who bring Leonardo and his work to life 500 years after the artist's death.

Valter Conti, strolling through one of Florence’s narrow alleyways, began posing as Leonardo da Vinci in 1990. He enjoys the silent anonymity of working as an impersonator.
Photograph by Paolo Woods and Gabriele Galimberti

The old and the new live in tandem in Florence, Italy. Electric cars zip down centuries-old cobblestone streets. Vendors type out texts while displaying their wares on the Ponte Vecchio. Tourists decked in t-shirts, shorts, and Apple Watches feast on gelato under Brunelleschi’s famous dome.

Still, there’s something startling about witnessing the Renaissance come alive before one’s eyes—as it does when Leonardo da Vinci checks his cellphone or Mona Lisa leans out from her frame to take a sip of apple juice.

This is standard fare for artistic impersonators Valter Conti and his daughter Elena Pinori who masquerade as Italy’s majestic painter and his most famous subject. At least three days a week, Conti spends two hours dressing to look like a

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