Mantova, dream and legend town

Who enters from the north-east, from Mulina’s or St. George’s bridges, from Veneto or Brescia town or the motorway has the right feeling of Mantua. A low and long profile, only marked from the raising towers and from the bell towers which seem to proctect the enormous, central and dominating dome of St. Andrew; all the landscape is greatly reflected in the calm waters of the lake.

The tourist’s sight is hit not only from the bright colours: fired sunsets, blue reflections of the lake, the compact green of the enormous lotus flower leaves, but often a thin film of steam which recover the landscape and soften every noise; a grey background made of brightness and transparency which make to seem a golden and silver town.

Legend says that soothsayer Manto, while fleeing from Thebes, came to the marshy lowlands of the river Mincio, where she settled down and founded a village.

Although the beginning of Mantua is rooted in legend, the town has played an important part in history at the times of the Etruscan, then with the birthplace of the latin poet Virgil, its greater son. After the Roman, the Lombard and the Carolingian dominations, the town became the capital of the territory of Matilde of Canossa, but Mantua reached its splendour with the Gonzaga and it kept untouched its artistical treasures: Romanesque and Neo-classical churches, royal palaces of VI century and sumptous Baroque homes, which give to the town a supremacy of beauty and culture,so to deserve, in September 2008, the title of "universal and heritage town of Unesco".