Mantua

We’re moving today, so we had a short bus ride to the walled hamlet of Sabbioneta, leaving Emiliana-Romagna and beginning our ride to Lombardia.  Since we are on the Pianura Padana, the flood plain of the Po River (the biggest river in Italy), our entire ride was flat…it was quite hot though!   Our first stop was Teatro all’antica, one of three remaining Renaissance theaters in Italy, which has been restored to close to its original beauty.  The rest of the morning we rode on a bike path along the Po River and saw small churches, houseboats on the Po River and more fields of corn, spelt and wheat.

We rode on gravel, cobblestones, pot holed asphalt, beautiful asphalt  and this interesting bridge supported by concrete boats.

Lunch was at Trattoria Bigiollla in Borgoforte where we had a salad buffet, pasta and for dessert called sbrisolone.  It is like a big crumbly cookie–not too sweet, but very satisfying.  After lunch our ride was more of the same…I stopped about 5 km from the hotel, Allan rode in to Casa Poli.  Charlie has “the bug” so today he stayed on the bus from Tabiano Castle and went straight to Mantua.

After resting a few minutes, we walked down the street to the bike shop, looking for a local bike shirt, but were not successful.  Lorenzo, our guide for the old town of Mantua met us in the hotel lobby and we set out to tour the town.  We saw the old Pescherie (fish market) designed by Guilio Romano.  It is not far from the meat market and the vegetable market.  We stopped at a Salumeria (salami store) along the way and tasted a local delicacy called mostarda…from Wikipedia…Mostarda di frutta (sometime also called only mostarda) is a Northern Italian condiment made of candied fruit and a mustard-flavoured syrup. Commercially the essential oil of mustard is employed, which has the advantage of transparency; in home cooking, mustard powder heated in white wine may be used. Traditionally mostarda was served with boiled meats, the bollito misto which is a speciality of northern Italian cooking. More recently it has become a popular accompaniment to cheeses.  Our taste was plain and it was quite spicy–tasted as though it had horseradish in it.  I suspect it would be good on goat cheese.  We continued toward one of the three lakes surrounding Mantua.  The lakes are man made and acted as a protective moat during ancient times.  There were many interesting buildings and stories throughout the town.  We saw the Piazza Della Erbe and the Rutunda of St. Lorenzo (the oldest church in town), St. Andrea’s Basilica (a renaissance masterpiece by Leon Battista Alberti), the Cathedral of Mantua (the duomo, where Romanesque, Gothic and Baroque architectures are all mixed together), the Ducal Palace (headquarters of the powerful Gonzaga family) and the Castle of San Giorgio.

This astronomical clock was commissioned by Gonzaga and built in 1473 because many of the merchants would not make decisions unless the stars were in the right astrological position.  The clock still works but needs adjustment every six months.

After our walk through the old town of Mantua, we ate at Osteria Andes (since it was the closest place we could find that opened at 7 instead of 8!  And backtracked along our original walk , past the hotel to the best gelato store in town, Master Cream Mantova.  The gelato was good as it has been everywhere and while we ate ours, we particularly enjoyed watching these two Italian men eat their gelato.  They both did share with the cute dog.

Another good day in Northern Italy!!