This past weekend I visited Mantova, a little city about an hour and a half away from Verona. Lined with cobblestone streets surrounding a spacious town center, Mantova is a beautiful medevial town with fresco filled, ancient palaces.
I went on two separate tours led in Italian by a local woman who reccounted famous stories of the nobles who lived, conducted business, and hosted parties in these spaciously lavish mansions.In the Palazzo Ducale I learned that the previous town rulers and aristocrats did not bathe very often (once a year), as they thought it was bad for your health. Because of this, perfume and scented powders were heavily used. The architecture was incredible.
The architects thought it would be clever to design the palace in such a way that every room felt like/appeared to be on the first floor. The floor gently slopes either up or down in every hallway and room, but there are very little stairs. While looking at a beautiful garden outside of one window the guide explained that the garden, which appeared to be on the ground, was actually lifted up on pillars to create the feeling that you were on the ground floor.
On Sunday we took a bicycle tour led by the same woman and heard stories of love, war, and family rivalries while gazing at frescoes of the under sides of horses and greek gods galloping above our heads. My favorite frescoes were the ones which were designed to appear so life like that when you walked across the room, the arms seemed to clench and unclench, and the eyes followed you. Often the paintings were personalized and the artist would depict an ancient mythological scene that somehow reflected the life or charactor of his employer, creating a kind of advertisement for the family name.
It seems that every Italian town has its own unique history and hidden historical/artistic wonders.
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