An Afternoon with Leonardo da Vinci

Amboise, France

April 18, 2000

The picturesque Château d’Amboise rises majestically from a promontory above the Loire and across from L’île d’Or. The strategic merit of the site is obvious, and fortifications have been built here since at least the tenth century. 

What we see now are the remnants or restorations of its Italianate incarnation begun five hun…