Niccolo Machiavelli and Leonardo Da Vinci, most likely at the behest of the Borgias, once conspired to steal a river.
That’s right folks. They planned to change the course of the Arno River so that they could steal it from Pisa and make Florence accessible by sea.
Please take a moment to imagine that.
Please.
‘So we just divert the -’
‘Don’t worry they won’t notice a thing’
100% better than National Treasure.
This should be a wacky bromance heist film. We need more wacky historical heist films.
It gets better. I just had to go check on the veracity of this and discovered MORE.
Their plan failed, at which point Machiavelli decided to quietly fade out of politics…and went on to write The Prince, one of the most (in)famous pieces of Western literature.
Da Vinci, meanwhile, never forgot the river that got away. In fact, he made it the background of one of his most famous paintings–hell, one of the most famous paintings, period.
This amazing technicolor castle has been abandoned for more than 20 years
The Castello di Sammezzano is a show-stopper, a jaw-dropper. Hidden away in the Tuscan hills of Northern Italy, this electrifyingly beautiful Moorish castle was built a whopping 400+ years ago in 1605, but for more than two decades, it’s been sitting empty, neglected, vulnerable to vandalism and to the elements.
There are 365 rooms in the Castello di Sammazzano, one for every day of the year. The Moroccan-style palatial villa is a labyrinthe of exquisitely tiled rooms, each one intricately unique. Originally built by a Spanish noble, Ximenes of Aragon in the 17th century, it wasn’t until the 19th century that the castle would find its arabian identity and be transformed into the etherial palace it resembles today.
Steel Phoenix Studios 