Some claimed that it is a non-existent bridge, others argued that the bridge should exist. Speculations circulated: from the Ponte Buriano near Laterina to the Ponte Bobbio in the northern city of Piacenza.
Italian historian Silvano Vinceti is convinced that the bridge in the painting is the Romito di Laterina bridge in the province of Arezzo. He used drone footage and historical documents and compared the paintings and photographs of the area. That bridge once had four arches, just like in the painting. The other bridges speculated about had more arches. “The unique shape of the bridge and the area it covered corresponds to what da Vinci painted,” said Vinceti. The bridge formed an ideal connection in the sixteenth century between Arezzo, Fiesole and Florence.
According to Simona Neri, the mayor of Laterina, Vinceti’s theory is causing a lot of excitement in the town of just over 3,500 inhabitants. “We have to try to protect what’s left of the bridge, and that takes money,” she says.
Vinceti conducts extensive research into the Mona Lisa painting. Earlier he also claimed that da Vinci would have used a male and female model for the painting. The artwork is on display at the Louvre in Paris.