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Sunday, November 25, 2018

Day trip to Mantua

Dear Family and Friends,

Our last day trip from Verona was to Mantua (Mantova in Italian).  Mantova is a city surrounded by 3 artificial lakes. These lakes were created during the 12th century as part of the city's defense system.
The city appears to be an island in the middle of the vast lakes.

We took a taxi from the train station.  We asked for the historic center and the driver dropped us off in the plaza of the Mantua Cathedral.



That was a far as he could drive, the historic area is all pedestrian.  

We were there pretty early about 9:30 am and the shops were all closed so we had a second morning coffee.

After coffee we walked into the historic district and gazed through the windows of the shops.  

I was intrigued with this shop which had fresh made tortellini and ravioli all made up.  I think we could all be great Italian cooks if we had shops like this one in our neighborhood.



Jars of fruit in syrup.  Almost too pretty to eat.



Figs in syrup.

This is a sbrisolona cake.  It is a hard flat cake about 8 or 9" across with almonds.  It is crumbly and reminds me of biscotti.  Mantua is known for these cakes and they were for sell in tourist size take away containers.  



We finally moseyed our way into the heart of the tourist district...Plazza delle Erbe.

Below is a not so great picture of the clock tower, Torre dell'Orologio.  To the right of it is the Rotonda di San Lorenzo, an 11th century chapel.





A closer look at the face of the clock.  It is an astronomical clock.



We wondered around the town, looking in shops.  We looked through the window of this out of the tourist traffic restaurant and decided that this is the place to have lunch.



More patrons came in after we were seated and I swear they were all locals.  This small restaurant filled up.  We had found a winner.

Well, Chuck found horse on the menu and he had to try it.  This is his plate....horse over polenta.


Audrey and Jim, who are also adventurous eaters had rabbit.

Me?  I had spinach stuffed tortellini with a parmesan sauce.  Very delicious.  



My view is that horses are for riding, rabbits are for delivering Easter eggs and spinach is for eating.

The weather was overcast and we had a laid back trip to this town.  

We returned to the train station and began our trip back to Verona.  

Tomorrow.....Rome!

Love,
Nancy


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