BEIJING, May 12 (Xinhuanet) -- Italian archaeologists are digging the remains of Lisa Gherardini, a 16th-century woman who is widely believed to be the model for the famous portrait Mona Lisa, AFP reported on Wednesday.

The team of historians say they will try to find the remains using geo-radar equipment and then try to re-create a likeness of what the woman, Lisa Gherardini, would have looked like to compare her to Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa.

Gherardini (1479-1542), also known by her married name as Lisa del Giocondo, was the wife of a Florentine silk merchant and is widely believed to have been the model for the  portrait that now hangs in the Louvre in Paris.

But the issue has never been settled definitively and mystery still shrouds the model's enigmatic expression and other details of the portrait.