Mantoooooova

EVERYONE GO TO MANTOVA.

This little town in Lombardia is beautiful, small, and absolutely perfect for a day trip!

My journey was a little more personal as I was planning to two with two family friends who hadn’t seen me since the age of 5. My ‘aunt’ recognized me more or less as soon as she saw mw on the platform of the train station in Mantova and took me to her house, which was a grand total of 2 minutes away. After getting acquainted with my other aunt, we sat down for dinner. They weren’t sure what I ate, so they more or less prepared everything available. I was super tired and had a quick shower before sleeping in the comfiest bed ever for 8 straight hours.

I got up the next morning and went to the train station to pick up my friend, who was coming to stay with us. We went back to the apartment and warmed up a bit before heading out to go around Mantova. We saw the Basilica di Sant’Andrea (which was still going through massive renovations because of last year’s terrible earthquake), La  Rotunda di San Lorenzo and Torre Fancelliana, Il Duomo (just the outside), Palazzo Ducale (THE MOAT WAS INSANE), and a lake (whose name escapes me atm) before lunch.

Basilica di Sant'Andrea

La Rotunda - an extremely appropriate name

Inside the Rotunda

The Tower

I WANT A MOAT

Il Duomo

Inside the Duomo

We had the best pasta con panna for lunch before heading to the best gelato across down on Corso Garibaldi and then, we finally went to the infamous Palazzo Te, which might be my favorite place with some of the most ridiculous artwork that I’ve seen since getting to Italy. We couldn’t take pictures, but I think it was better to just be forced to really look and appreciate the insane frescos.

Grounds of Palazzo Te

La camera di amore e psiche

La camera dei giganti

Saturday night was spent having the LARGEST possible dinner at my aunt’s restaurant — mortadella to start, 3 plates of pasta, and (literally) an entire chicken in the form of cotolette. And dessert. And two bottles/things of wine. Insane. My friend and I were convinced we were going to explode.

My I'm-clearly-too-excited-but-am-gonna-regret-this face

Sunday was simpler. We got up, found a pretty secret, small canal, went to see the inside of the Duomo and walked around the open market. My friend found a great new piece of jewelry and I found a handmade ceramic Mantovian plate for my parents! We also bought a small picture frame for my aunts (which they berated us for) and proceeded to take dozens of pictures together to remember the trip. Once we told them they could use one of the photos for the frame they were much happier.

I feel like this is a great preview for Venice

:)))))

We ended up having some foolish train problems on the way back to Parma but eventually made it back safe and sound. Next week = Venice, Padova, Vicenza, and Verona! Thanks for reading!