France, Italy mark 500th anniversary of Leonardo's death

The Loire Valley town of Amboise will kick off festivities marking the 500th anniversary of Leonardo da Vinci's death in style on Thursday, with the French and Italian presidents topping the bill.

The Florentine master who personified the Italian Renaissance was the guest of France's King Francis I for the final three years of his life before his death in Amboise in 1519.

France's Emmanuel Macron and Italian President Sergio Mattarella will mark the anniversary with visits to his grave at the royal chateau and the Clos Luce, the sumptuous manor house nearby where Leonardo lived and died.

Among glitterati attending the events will be Italian star architect Renzo Piano and French astronaut Thomas Pesquet.

The joint celebrations come after months of mounting diplomatic tensions between Paris and Rome over the hardline policies of Italy's populist government and its support for
At the time, Francis I was barely 23, and his ambitious mother Louise of Savoy "knew that Leonardo would be the man who would allow her son to flourish", Catherine Simon