Mantua
- Food
- No kitchen checked
- Church
- Rotonda di San Lorenzo
Crowd level: Easy. Busy only at the obvious hour
Best season Palazzo Te's visit page: Monday 9:00–19:00, Tuesday 13:00–19:00, Wednesday to Sunday 9:00–19:00. The ticket office closes at 18:00. Closed 25 December. Open on other holidays.
A Gonzaga city on the water, southwest of Verona, without an opera amphitheater. Palazzo Te is the suburban villa at the south end. It is a real city, not a secret village.
Worth knowing
Start at the Te
The sustainable-destination walk starts at Palazzo Te and ends at Palazzo Ducale, 2.1 km, about 30 minutes on foot. An advance ticket is not required. The visit page says it is strongly advised on weekends and holidays, and that a presale fee is then added.
Inside the rooms
No food or drink in the rooms. No smoking anywhere on the property, gardens included. The ticket is one entry at each of the three sites it names.
The short version
Mantua's sustainable-destination page says Giulio Romano built Palazzo Te between 1525 and 1535 for Federico II Gonzaga, as a suburban villa on the island called Tejeto. The palace's own visit page says one ticket also admits you once to MACA and to the Tempio Leon Battista Alberti. The provincial tourism page calls Palazzo Ducale a city inside the city, first Bonacolsi and then Gonzaga, and calls the Rotonda di San Lorenzo the oldest church.
Food nearby
No kitchen checked
A national tourism page says the fish market under Giulio Romano's Pescherie ran until the 1940s. That arcade is not a shop to walk into for dinner.
A church
Rotonda di San Lorenzo
The provincial tourism page calls it the oldest church in Mantua, built in the 11th century on a round plan. Sant'Andrea is the large basilica. This is the smaller, older door.
No service time was printed on the page this desk read.
Schedule source