This is a most beautiful town worthy of travelling a thousand miles to see it - Torquato Tasso, 1586
Mantua is a lovely town, calm, pretty, well laid out, beautiful buildings and it is FLAT! There are no hills and the only steps for us in this town are four, soft carpeted, that lead to our room! It is a pure delight to walk around an Italian town that doesn't have a stream of steep inclinations. Because it is so flat, it is full of people riding bicycles; hundreds of them. Part of the town is marked for only pedestrians and bicycles. The street lights signalling that it is okay to cross the road have people and bicycle symbols.
There are three people-made lakes here. Britt wanted to walk to Lago Superiore as it is said to have the most picturesque view. We walked a great distance through the town and a beautiful park to get there but I was sure that we were walking so far that we must have been heading to the Canadian Lake Superior! The park, that runs along the river and the lakes, was full of people walking, jogging, playing and fishing. I saw a number of water birds that I didn't recognize.
We walked from one end of town to the other and ended up at Palazzo Te. Every inch of the walls in the rooms in this villa / palace are filled with frescoes. It was amazing to see. This is a town that is worthy of seeing. It doesn't seem to market itself to tourists, but the tourist information packages available, which are freely and enthusiastically given, are beautifully and professionally done and the people in the industry are very friendly and helpful.
We are heading now, to Verona. We have tickets for the Opera in an ancient outdoor theatre. We received an email from the opera folks stating that it is a formal dress code. This will be fun to figure out; I wonder what I have scrunched up in a ball in my knapsack that will look the least bit formal?
Mantua is a lovely town, calm, pretty, well laid out, beautiful buildings and it is FLAT! There are no hills and the only steps for us in this town are four, soft carpeted, that lead to our room! It is a pure delight to walk around an Italian town that doesn't have a stream of steep inclinations. Because it is so flat, it is full of people riding bicycles; hundreds of them. Part of the town is marked for only pedestrians and bicycles. The street lights signalling that it is okay to cross the road have people and bicycle symbols.
There are three people-made lakes here. Britt wanted to walk to Lago Superiore as it is said to have the most picturesque view. We walked a great distance through the town and a beautiful park to get there but I was sure that we were walking so far that we must have been heading to the Canadian Lake Superior! The park, that runs along the river and the lakes, was full of people walking, jogging, playing and fishing. I saw a number of water birds that I didn't recognize.
We walked from one end of town to the other and ended up at Palazzo Te. Every inch of the walls in the rooms in this villa / palace are filled with frescoes. It was amazing to see. This is a town that is worthy of seeing. It doesn't seem to market itself to tourists, but the tourist information packages available, which are freely and enthusiastically given, are beautifully and professionally done and the people in the industry are very friendly and helpful.
We are heading now, to Verona. We have tickets for the Opera in an ancient outdoor theatre. We received an email from the opera folks stating that it is a formal dress code. This will be fun to figure out; I wonder what I have scrunched up in a ball in my knapsack that will look the least bit formal?
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