Mantova

After being thoroughly exhausted when we got home from Florence last night, we woke up this morning and took a bus to Mantova (pronounced Mantua in English).

Mantova is smaller town, like Verona. It is home to two large palaces, and we got the chance to get tours of both of them.

The first was Palazzo Te, which was home to Federico Gonzaga II. The Gonzaga family once ruled over Mantova, when each town had it's own lords and dukes in the 1500s. This palace acted as more of a "summer home" for the family, and Federico even had a separate wing built for his mistress to stay in.

The most interesting part of the tour was getting to see the amazing fresco paintings in all of the rooms. Each one has an incredible amount of detail and great story to go along with it. Some rooms were painted with more sexually explicit images, which were meant to be used for Federico and his lover. Others had paintings of the giants of Greek mythology, which represented the power that the Gonzaga family possessed in the town.

A "secret garden" within the palace walls.

The opening at the end of the garden leads to a room that is the closest thing to a bathroom these people ever saw. It had six "bathing areas" that water would come out of. A fire was lit in the room and in a way it acted like a sauna for them. Even while in there, the people of this time period would always wear a thin layer, never letting the water actually touch their skin.

Must've been real stinky. 

After the palace we ate an enormous lunch. We're talking four courses, complete with risotto, shells in vodka sauce, potatoes, beef and turkey, and the most delicious chocolate brownie/cookie thing I have ever eaten. Ok fine, I ate more than one. 

After lunch we headed to the family's palace, which was much more well-decorated than the first. Both structures lack a lot furnishings of any kind because they were ransacked by the German army in the 1600's. However, the second palace had more ornate details and beautiful artwork on the ceiling. Seeing all of this still makes me wonder how these elaborate buildings were put together without any sort of modern technology. 

Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures inside of either building. But the paintings we saw were so beautiful, and even without any heat inside there (how did people live there?) it was so interesting to walk around the palaces. 

Once we had walked around in the cold and the rain for some time, Claudio took us all to the factory outlet mall in Mantova. It has over 100 outlet stores, and we had a few hours to look around. Although most of them are high-end Italian brands and way out of my price range, it was really neat to get an Italian shopping experience! 

Next week we have a planned trip to go skiing in the Alps! I am so excited and can't wait to fall flat on my face. 

Ciao!