TEN Reasons to Visit LEONARDO at the Tech Today!

Run, don’t walk, or better yet take your flying machine to see LEONARDO: 500 Years into the Future. This 30,000 square foot exhibit is at the Tech Museum for a limited time and ends on January 4th. ValleyZen was so impressed with our first visit that we returned and took some friends with us again yesterday. Why you should make it a must on your todo list of mind-expanding activities for 2008:

10. Rack up Renaissance Frequent Flyer Miles

With Leonardo’s Flying Machine. Wingtip to wingtip it measures about 40 feet across and weighs 1000 pounds.

9. See the Sforza Horse

and let your imagination gallup away with this 24-ft. tall fiberglass model of a sculpture da Vinci planned but never built. Standing proud on the corner of South Market and Park Street, the first Sforza horse would have required 70 tons of bronze.

8. Peek Inside Brunelleschi’s Dome

The secrets of one of the greatest engineering marvels of all time are revealed in a cutaway model of the dome built for Santa Maria del Fiore.

7. Synchronize your Watches

With a planetary clock by Lorenzo della Volpaia.

6. Get High

With Adrenaline Rush the IMAX documentary showing at the Tech. Hang on tight to your seat as you watch an Oxford University research team try to create Leonardo’s parachute and then fly with it!

5. Be part of a (Metaphorical) Group Hug

Leonardo embraced art, technology and science, not as separate from one another, but as a whole. When you visit the exhibit, you are a part of that continuum.

4. Paintings from the Uffizi in San Jose!!

When was the last time you saw that? Although not Leonardo da Vinci, two original Renaissance paintings by his disciples are on loan from the Uffizi. Gian Giacomo Caprotti’s copy of The Virgin and Child with St. Anne and a second painting by an anonymous painter, Leda and the Swan.

3. This is the ONLY US Stop

Montreal, Tokyo and Paris have shown variations of this exhibit. Now it’s come to Silicon Valley’s doorstep.

2. MADE in ITALY

The three dimensional models were almost all built in Florence by a group of incredible artisans who are renowned for restoring ancient furniture and metal.

1. So you can SHAKE it up!

After being invigorated by the genius of Leonardo, we know you’ll experience SATORI — walking away with new ideas and insights about your field, whatever that may be. ValleyZen’s recommendation?? To start the ideas swirling around, go downstairs after LEONARDO to the Tech’s earthquake simulator and experience simulations of Loma Prieta, ‘89 Northridge ’94, Turkey ’99…

Have you visited? If so share your thoughts. If not, what sounds the most intriguing to you?