Mantua
You may well feel like a duke or duchess, lounging around this 15th-century palazzo, delighting in the frescoed ceilings, vast marble fireplaces and cherub-framed doors. The grand style continues into the bedrooms, one of which is cheekily called the camera degli sposi (bridal chamber) after the iconic room in Mantua's Palazzo Ducale. It's way, way grander than your traditional B&B.
Come midweek if you can; the higher prices are charged at weekends.
21.73 MILES
Built of pink-tinged marble in the 1st century AD, Verona's Roman amphitheatre survived a 12th-century earthquake to become the city’s legendary open-air…
0.37 MILES
For more than 300 years the enormous Palazzo Ducale was the seat of the Gonzaga – a family of wealthy horse breeders who rose to power in the 14th century…
Galleria d'Arte Moderna Achille Forti
22.05 MILES
In the shadow of the Torre dei Lamberti, the Romanesque Palazzo della Ragione is home to Verona's jewel-box Gallery of Modern Art. Reached via the Gothic…
22.29 MILES
Across the river from the historic centre, these sculpted gardens are considered a masterpiece of Renaissance landscaping, and are named after the noble…
26.63 MILES
The jewel in the Allegrini crown, this historic villa dates to the mid-16th century and was built by intellectual and humanist Giulio della Torre…
25.22 MILES
Occupying 2 hectares at Sirmione's northern tip, this ruined 1st-century-AD Roman villa is a picturesque complex of teetering stone arches and tumbledown…
21.62 MILES
Bristling with fishtail battlements along the river Adige, Castelvecchio was built in the 1350s by Cangrande II. Severely damaged by Napoleon and WWII…
0.83 MILES
Palazzo Te was where Frederico II Gonzaga escaped for love trysts with his mistress Isabella Boschetti, and it's decorated in playboy style with stunning…
0.19 MILES
Easily usurping Mantua's cathedral, this towering basilica safeguards the golden vessels said to hold earth soaked by the blood of Christ. Longinus, the…
0.23 MILES
Once the location of the town's vegetable market, Piazza delle Erbe is Mantua's most lively piazza. Its 13th-century Palazzo della Ragione sports a 15th…
0.23 MILES
The weather-worn, 11th-century, Lombard Romanesque Rotonda di San Lorenzo is sunk below the level of the square, its red-brick walls still decorated with…
0.24 MILES
In the Palazzo della Ragione, which runs the length of the square from the Rotonda, and was once the seat of secular power in the city, you can see…
0.26 MILES
This huge, 13th-century palace sits between Piazza delle Erbe and Piazza Broletto and was commissioned by Duke Ludovico Gonzaga. For centuries it served…
0.27 MILES
One of half a dozen squares that embellish Mantua's historic centre, the Broletto is home to the Palazzo del Podestà, once home to the city's highest…
0.27 MILES
This archway built around 1300 links two palaces with a covered walkway above the street. Look up as you pass beneath the arch to see iron rings on which…
0.28 MILES
Enter Piazza Sordello from the south and on your left you have the grand house of the Gonzagas' predecessors, the Bonacolsi clan. Hapless prisoners used…