After the slushy day last Tuesday, the weather improved, and we set off by train for Mantova (Mantua). Mantova is in Lombardy, capital Milan, so we felt quite adventurous.
It is hard to believe just how many ancient city centres have survived the bombing by the Allies and the destruction by the retreating German army during the war, not to mention the depredations of town planners which afflicted so many British cities. Mantova was yet another such city full of surprises ...
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| Colour coordination at Parma station - our train is on the left! |
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| Mantova is famous for its cakes, and this shop's window was one of the first sights we saw ... |
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| More from the same window ... |
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Mantova is a city of ancient squares - this is the Piazza Sordello, with the
duomo facing, and the Palazzo Ducale in shadow on the right |
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The imposing mass of the Castello San Giorgio built for Francesco I Gonzaga around 1400
- not a place to be banged up in on a dark rainy night in the Middle Ages one suspects! |
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Wonderful secular frescoes in the Castello San Giorgio painted some 500 years ago by the painter
Mantegna for the court of the ruling Gonzaga family. If you look closely you can see that the cherubs
have the wings of butterflies ... |
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| A lion unimpressed by his role as wall decoration |
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The much younger 18th century stunning rococo Teatro Bibiena in Mantova, dating from the days
when Austria ruled Lombardy. In 1770, a few weeks after it first opened its doors, a 13 year old chap
called Amedeus Mozart gave a concert "with resounding success"! |
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Mantova is surrounded by water on three sides - artificial lakes created in the 12th century for defence
purposes. We saw the Mantova skyline from the far side during our bike ride on our first evening |
Wikipedia tells me Mantua is going from Italian 'capital of culture' this year to, next year, capital of gastronomy. Those cakes have certainly made me very peckish.
ReplyDeleteThere are actually better cakes to be had - the crispy apple-crumble-like Sbrisolona, the wonderful rum-baba-like Torta delle Rosa. However the accolade of Capital of Gastronomy probably comes from such items as cotechino (boiled fatty pork haggis-like sausage, and donkey-meat stew - both of which we ate ...
ReplyDeletethe picture of those cakes is a work of art, even if their are better cakes to be had...
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