milan (italy)

Two cousins--one in Lagos, Nigeria, and the other in Milan, Italy--have different lives, but they share a dream of meeting and being together.

Fifteen-year-old Giacomo, servant to Leonardo da Vinci, helps his procrastinating master finish painting, "The Last Supper," while also trying to find clues to his parentage and pursue his own career as an artist in late fifteenth-century Milan.

"A young woman arrives at a beautiful villa in the countryside outside Milan. Bianca, a gifted young watercolourist, has been commissioned to illustrate the plants in the magnificent grounds. Bianca settles into her grand new home, invited into the heart of the family by the eccentric poet Don Titta, his five children, his elegant and delicate wife and powerful, controlling mother. As the seasons pass, the young watercolourist develops her art - inspired by the landscape around her - and attracts many admirers. And while most of the household's servants view her with envy, she soon develops a special affection for one housemaid, who, she is intrigued to learn, has mysterious origins ... But as Bianca's determination to unlock the secrets of the villa grows, she little notices the dangers that lie all around her"--Back cover.

While in Milan, Geronimo Stilton must clear his name when he is framed for stealing the original recipe for the holiday bread panettone.

Relates, from the point of view of his servant Salai, how Leonardo da Vinci came to paint the Mona Lisa.

In fifteenth-century Florence, the dashing Venetian ambassador commissions young Leonardo da Vinci to paint a portrait of his Platonic love, Ginevra de' Benci, a well-educated, teenaged poet in a passionless marriage, propelling her into the world of art, politics, and romance, with all of its complications.

Relates, from the point of view of his servant Salai, how Leonardo da Vinci came to paint the Mona Lisa.

When the opera diva Madame SoSo gets laryngitis, her singing cat Alma fills in for her.

Fifteen-year-old Giacomo, servant to Leonardo da Vinci, helps his procrastinating master finish painting, "The Last Supper," while also trying to find clues to his parentage and pursue his own career as an artist in late fifteenth-century Milan.