We present V and I photometry of a 9.4 \arcmin \times 9.4 \arcmin field centered on the dwarf spheroidal galaxy Leo I .
The I magnitude of the tip of the Red Giant Branch is robustly estimated from two different datasets ( I ^ { TRGB } = 17.97 ^ { +0.05 } _ { -0.03 } ) .
From this estimate , adopting [ M / H ] \simeq - 1.2 from the comparison of RGB stars with Galactic templates , we obtain a distance modulus ( m - M ) _ { 0 } = 22.02 \pm 0.13 , corresponding to a distance D = 254 ^ { +16 } _ { -19 } Kpc .