Mantua is one of a kind city where you arrive and dream of magic and fairytale. Surrounded on three sides from the artificial lake of Mincio, it seems as the water gave birth to the city.
Mantua between art, music and Renaissance
“Mantua me genuit” (Mantua gave birth to me), sang Virgilio, the greatest classic poet, who was born in Mantua.
Mantua seems hanged between sky and earth. It is a magic city enchants and which enchanted poets, writers and artists of all time.
Think to Mantegna, who moved to Mantua with all his family to become a painter at the Gonzaga court; to Vivaldi, who wrote the Four Seasons, inspired by Mantuan landscapes. How to forget Shakespeare, who chose Mantua as destination for the exile of Romeo? It is in Mantua where he bought the poison from the apothecary. Even Verdi chose it, in order to set his Rigoletto.
Mantua is also the city where the lyrical opera was born: the Orfeo by Monteverdi was composed and represented at the Gonzaga court in 1607 and it is considered the first true lyrical opera.
Mantua enchanted and enchants whoever chooses to reach it, traverse it and live it, again and again.
It is a city that celebrates love, as Venice does. The frame of water that surrounds it, the urban landscapes and those of the countryside, its streets and art works.
Contemporaries define the “bride and groom bedroom”, the masterpiece of Andrea Mantegna, as “the most beautiful bedroom in the world”. It is the first example of vertical perspective ever realized in the history of art. Looking upwards and admiring the centre of that ceiling is something breathless.
In the Palace Te, which has been projected by Giulio Romano and that is a masterpiece of the Renaissance, you can admire the room of Amor and Psyche. It inherits its name from the representation of the famous fable of Apuleio from the Metamorphosis, which is told along the entire octagon that traverses it. Moreover, other renowned rooms are the one of the Horses and the one of the Giants, first example of 3D art in the history of art. Charles Dickens was enchanted by it. Mantegna has magnificently frescoed all of them.
In Mantua it is possible to get lost in all its magnificence.
Mantua and the good food
Mantua is the only province where occurs the production of the two most famous and important Italian cheeses: Grana Padano and Parmigiano Reggiano, two fundamental ingredients of many traditional Mantuan meals.
First courses of fresh pasta are the forte of the Mantuan cooking. In these meals, cheese is never absent, as we have just said.
The most famous Mantuan desserts are the sbrisolona, typical for its crumbliness and the unique taste of almond, the Tagliatelle cake, the Elvezia cake, made with almond paste, the Bussolano (Bisulàn), a hard ring-shaped cake that has to be immersed in the wine, normally Lambrusco.
Getting marry in Mantua
Mantua could be the frame where to celebrate your wedding. You could choose between different options, with civil or religious ceremony.
If you are going to choose a civil ceremony, you will have the possibility of getting married in those places available for celebrations, as Palazzo Te and the city halls.
Instead, you could prefer a wedding outside the city. In that case a wonderful convent in the countryside will satisfy a couple of newlyweds who imagines a more bucolic and less urban ceremony.
The Annunciata Convent, defined by Vogue and by the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera “of a breathless beauty”, is very close to Mantua and to other famous and beloved cities as Verona, Brescia and Garda lake. It will be the perfect place to celebrate love in simplicity.
In the surrounding countryside, you could even admire medieval castles and villages, villas, churches that include part of the great artistic and cultural Italian heritage and they will be the background of your journey together.
Annunciata Convent: it rises a few miles from the south side of Garda lake, surrounded bythe wood, with almost a thousand years of story. The charm of its inner outer spaces is incomparable: the court, the clearings, the stone vaults of the ancient rooms. Each corner of this place enchants and seduces. Here, you can celebrate also the civil ceremony for groups of a maximum of 150 guests.