Gonzaga grandeur on three lakes — Virgil's birthplace
Mantova (Mantua) is a UNESCO World Heritage city entirely surrounded by artificial lakes created by the Gonzaga rulers who controlled it for four centuries. The Palazzo Ducale — one of Europe's largest palace complexes — contains Mantegna's extraordinary Camera degli Sposi, with its illusionistic ceiling oculus. The city that inspired Romeo and Juliet, birthplace of Virgil, home to Giulio Romano's Palazzo Te, and producer of tortelli di zucca, the pumpkin pasta that became Italy's most unusual first course.
Mantova was the seat of the Gonzaga dynasty from 1328 to 1707, making it one of the most important cultural centres of the Renaissance. Under Ludovico III Gonzaga, the court painter Andrea Mantegna created the Camera degli Sposi (1465–74), the first fully illusionistic fresco cycle in Western art. Isabella d'Este's studiolo attracted Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael. The city produced Claudio Monteverdi, the father of opera, and Shakespeare set Romeo and Juliet here. Napoleon ended Gonzaga rule and gave the city to Austria; it joined unified Italy in 1866.