All about La Dolce Vita
There are many interesting sites in Mantova, The Palazzo Ducale, to mention one. But no visit can be complete without a visit to Palazzo Te. Palazzo Te is a Renaissance Villa built in what in 1524 used to be suburban Mantova. To the first-time modern visitor, at first look, It is just an unassuming building. […]
Read More
Mantua kept a lot of its old looks. There are cobblestone streets, narrow alleys, old taverns, and foggy waters (in winter). Francesco Maria Piave was Giuseppe Verdi’s librettist, and when Verdi asked him to work on Rigoletto, they had to find a suitable city for the story. For Piave, a Venetian, Mantova was just the […]
Read More
A Fantastic Way to Visit Italy There is more and more enthusiasm for alternatives ways to visit Italy. eBikes made it even easier for everybody to take up long tours along off-the-beaten paths of Italian landscapes. My most recent trip was from Mantova to Peschiera on the Garda Lake with an eBike. 45km (about 38 […]
Read More
Rigoletto I just went to see Rigoletto, one of the most famous Italian operas and one of my favorites, one of the reasons—besides the beautiful arias—is that the plot is almost credible. There are a couple of operas by Giuseppe Verdi where the plot is really hard to take, while others are not dramatic enough, which […]
Read More
Actually the first two have absolutely nothing in common! Gonzaga, Chagall, and Rigoletto The exhibition by Chagall (From September 5, 2018 to February 3, 2019, at Palazzo Della Ragione), provided a good excuse to travel to Mantova. We were blessed with a crisp—if cold—day with no fog! Mantova is a tricky city to visit because […]
Read More
Life in Italy 