Things to do in Mantua
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Festivaletteratura
For five days each September, central Mantua is taken over by the Festivaletteratura, with open-air bookstalls, and readings and author discussions (some in English).
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Palazzo Te
The main reason to visit Mantua’s other Gonzaga palace, Palazzo Te isn’t its modern art and Egyptian displays, but the fanciful 16th-century palace itself. Built by Giulio Romano, over-the-top rooms include the Camera dei Giganti, one of the most fantastic and frightening creations of the Renaissance, adorned with dramatic frescoes depicting Jupiter’s destruction of the Titans.
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Market stalls
Market stalls selling everything from fruit, flowers, pots, pans and clothes to useless clutter fill Piazzas Sordello, Broletto and delle Erbe and their surrounding streets on Thursday morning. More than a million pigs a year are reared in the province of Mantua. Try salumi (salt pork), pancetta(salt-cured bacon), prosciutto crudo (salt-cured ham) and risotto with the locally grown vialone nano rice.
Tortelli di zucca (sweet pumpkin-stuffed cushions of square pasta) is the city's most venerable dish, while risotto alla pilota (risotto with minced pork) and luccio (pike) also appear on most menus. Mantua is also renowned for its sweet specialities, including torta di tagli…
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Castello di San Giorgio
Palazzo Ducale's centrepiece is Castello di San Giorgio, overflowing with works of art collected by the Gonzaga family, Mantua's long-time rulers. Don't miss Andrea Mantegna's Camera degli Sposi, a wonderful series of frescoes executed by the master between 1465 and 1474 in one of the castle's towers. The trompe l'oeil oculus adds a playful touch to the more formal family scenes.
Other rooms worth pausing over include the Sala del Pisanello, decorated with unfinished 15th-century frescoes of Arthurian legends by Pisanello, the heavily frescoed Sala di Troia and the Camera dello Zodiaco, with its magnificent deep-blue ceiling festooned with figures from the zodiac. Equally…
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Basilica di Sant’Andrea
The elaborate baroque cupola of Basilica di Sant’Andrea lords it over the city. Designed by Leon Battista Alberti in 1472, it safeguards a much-disputed relic: golden vessels said to hold earth soaked by the blood of Christ. Longinus, the Roman soldier who speared Christ on the cross, is said to have scooped up the earth and buried it in Mantua after leaving Palestine. Today, these containers rest beneath a marble octagon in front of the altar and are paraded around the town in a grand procession on Good Friday. There is no dispute about the tomb of Andrea Mantegna, also inside the basilica.
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Motonavi Andes
Motonavi Andes organises boat tours of the lakes (starting from €8 for 1½ hours), five-hour excursions to San Benedetto Po (one-way Monday to Saturday €13.50, Sunday €15.50) and day trips to Venice (€77 Monday to Saturday, €84 Sunday). Boats arrive/depart from the Imbarco Motonavi Andes, behind Castello di San Giorgio on Lago di Mezzo’s shore.
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Ristorante Masseria
Masseria’s supremely sweet tortelli di zucca is among the best in town; other house specialities include Mantuan beef stew with Lambrusco and polenta, and platters piled with local cheeses and dollops of mustard. Choose to eat in the cobbled square, or in a 13th-century dining room overlooked by a 15th-century fresco – the oldest depiction of the city in existence.
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Casa Mantegna
In 1476, the ruling Gonzaga family gave Andrea Mantegna land on which to build himself a house. You can see the results, now used as exhibition space in the Casa Mantegna. The sobre facade gives way to a series of rooms built around a unique, cylindrical courtyard.
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Rotonda di San Lorenzo
South of the Basilica di Sant’Andrea, across 15th-century colonnaded Piazza delle Erbe, is the 11th-century Romanesque Rotonda di San Lorenzo, sunk below the level of the square and believed to stand on the site of a Roman temple dedicated to Venus.
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Parco dell Scienza
A riverside promenade with an informative twist, the Parco dell Scienza stretches along the shore of Lago di Mezzo from Porta San Giorgio to Porta Molina. Information panels and gadgets illustrate various physical and scientific phenomena in a kid-friendly fashion.
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Fragoletta Antica
Set just back from the waterfront, this rustic place serves risotto alla pilota, and gnocchi with ricotta, burnt butter and parmigiano reggiano. The dining room is warm and cosy, filled with heavy wood and lined with bottles of wine.
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Parco del Mincio
The tourist office stocks an excellent booklet in English detailing cycling itineraries along the Po river, in the Parco del Mincio and around the lakes. One route takes cyclists around Lago Superiore to the Santuario di Santa Maria delle Grazie.
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Torre della Gabbia
Enter Piazza Sordello from the south and on your left you have the grand house of the Gonzagas' predecessors, the Bonacolsi clan. Hapless prisoners used to be dangled in a cage from the tower, aptly called the Torre della Gabbia - Cage Tower.
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Santuario di Santa Maria delle Grazie
On Lago Superiore, 8km from Mantua in Grazie di Curtatone, is the Lombard Gothic-style Santuario di Santa Maria delle Grazie, built in 1406 in thanks for the end of the Black Death. Inside are 53 life-size papier-mâché statues.
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Cattedrale
The Cattedrale pales before the magnificence of the Basilica di Sant’Andrea. The facade was erected in the mid-18th century, while the decoration inside was completed by Giulio Romano after a fire in 1545.
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Palazzo Broletto
Past the 13th-century Palazzo della Ragione is Palazzo Broletto, which dominates neighbouring Piazza Broletto. In a niche on the façade is a seated figure wearing a doctor's cap, which is said to represent Virgil.
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Palazzo della Ragione
In the Palazzo della Ragione, which runs the length of the square from the Rotonda and was once the seat of secular power in the city, you can see exhibitions of varying interest (usually free).
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Grifone Bianco
For gastronomic cuisine par excellence, Grifone’s damask tablecloths and heavy silverware – not to mention the plates of local salami and pike with salsa and polenta – make it stand out.
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Palazzo Ducale
Occupying a whopping chunk of the city’s northeastern corner, the imposing walls of Palazzo Ducale hide three squares, 15 courtyards, a park and 500-odd rooms.
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Hosteria dei Canossa
Hidden away on a tiny side street, this local gem dishes up regional risotto, pasta and meat dishes teamed with hard-to-find Lombard wines from between its red-brick walls.
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Clos Wine Bar
This innovative wine bar/eating space is situated behind a giant glass door, and has a minimalist, high-ceilinged interior.
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Libenter Moderna Osteria
A hip spot a few minutes' stroll from Libenter B&B, with polished concrete and retro moulded plastic furniture.
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Casa di Rigoletto
Behind the cathedral lies Casa di Rigoletto, which Verdi used as a model set for most of his operas.
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Local boat owners
Local boat owners can arrange ecothemed trips on lesser-explored waterways on request.
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Mantova Jazz
The city's jazz festival, Mantova Jazz swings from late March through to early May.
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