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Grazie And Sabbioneta
There’s not much to see within cushy reach of Mantua, and the countryside - the Mantuan plain - is for the most part flat and dull. The closest real attraction is at GRAZIE , a ten-minute bus ride west, where the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie has an interior chock-full of weird votive offerings, wax and wooden mannequins in clothes petrified with age standing in niches, surrounded by wooden hearts, breasts, hands and feet nailed up by the recipients of miracle cures. There’s even a stuffed crocodile hanging from the ceiling. Alongside the church, a path leads down to the marshes, rich in rare birds and wildlife. For boat trips along the Po contact Montonavi Andes at Piazza Sordello 8, Mantua (tel 0376.322.875) or Motonave Sebastiano N. at Via Ostigliese est 272, Governolo (tel 0376.668.134). Further out, fifty minutes by bus from Mantua bus station (3-9 daily), SABBIONETA is a more interesting target, an odd little place with the air of an forsaken film set, where imperious Renaissance palaces gaze blankly over deserted and dusty piazzas. The town is the result of the psychoneurotic dream of Vespasiano Gonzaga, member of a minor branch of the Mantuan family, to create the saint city, but it has now been forsaken by all but the oldest inhabitants, a handful of agricultural workers and the tourist board.
Sabbioneta was an anachronism even as it was being built. In the sixteenth century it was no more than an agricultural village, nominal capital of an insignificant state on the Mantuan border struggling to maintain its independence from the foreign powers who had colonized most of Lombardy. Unperturbed, its ruler, Duke Vespasiano, was keen to create an saint state on the model of ancient Athens and Rome, and he uprooted his subjects from their farm cottages, forcing them to build and then inhabit the new city, which held a Greek and Latin Academy and a Palladian theatre as well as a couple of ducal residences. After Vespasiano’s death, Sabbioneta returned to - and has remained in - its former state: a small agricultural village like hundreds of others throughout Italy.
To get inside any of the town’s buildings you have to take a guided tour . These are arranged by the tourist office at Via Gonzaga 31 (April-Sept Tues-Sat 9.30am-12.30pm & 2.30-6pm, Sun 9.30am-12.30pm & 2.30-7pm; Oct-March closes one hour earlier; tel 0375.52.039, www.unh.net/sabbioneta ), by the main piazza and bus stop. The tours start with the Palazzo del Giardino , Vespasiano’s private residence, decorated with frescoed models of civilized behaviour, ranging from Roman emperors to the Three Graces. Next stop is the Teatro Olimpico , copied from Palladio’s theatre of the same study in Vicenza, in which the only spectators are pallid marble gods, fake-bronze emperors and ghostly painted courtiers. The Palazzo Ducale , around the corner, holds painted wooden statues of four of the Gonzagas, including Vespasiano (with the ruffle and beard), sitting imperiously on horseback. What remains of the palace’s decor is likewise concerned with the show of strength - frescoed elephants and friezes of eagles and lions. Close by, the Chiesa dell’Incoronata is remarkable mainly for its trompe l’oeil roof, which appears to be three times higher in than out - perhaps an apt comment on Vespasiano, a bronze statue of whom sits beneath, dressed as a Roman emperor and looking reluctant to leave his dream city.
Tags: agricultural village, agricultural workers, ancient athens, farm cottages, film set, latin academy, mantua, maria delle grazie, minute bus, miracle cures, palladian, piazza sordello, piazzas, rare birds, renaissance palaces, sabbioneta, santa maria delle grazie, target, votive offerings, wooden hearts