| Rice road | |
 | |
| Itinerary type | Automotive |
|---|---|
| State |  Italy |
| Region | Lombardy |
| Territory | Mantuan |
| Start | Mantua |
| end | Porto Mantovano |
Rice road is an itinerary that takes place through the Lombardy.
Introduction
The itinerary - to be carried out in particular from May to September - runs through the Mantua area dedicated to the cultivation of rice, between rivers and canals.
How to get
 | To learn more, see: How to get to Mantua. |
By plane
The nearest airports are:
- Verona-Villafranca Airport
By car
The nearest motorway exit is:
Brenner motorway: exit Mantua north.
Brenner motorway: exit On the train
The nearest station is:
Stages
Rice Road: full screen map.
Profile of Mantua
- 1 Mantua - The city experienced its period of maximum splendor in the Renaissance period: under the lordship of the Gonzaga Mantua became one of the main centers of the Italian and European Renaissance. The main testimonies of this era are the Palazzo Ducale with the Castle of San Giorgio and the note Room of the Spouses frescoed by Mantegna, the Basilica of Sant'Andrea designed by Leon Battista Alberti and Palazzo Te, a place of recreation for the Gonzaga family, built and decorated by Giulio Romano. City of art of the first magnitude, the entire historic center of Mantua is, together with Sabbioneta, world Heritage.
- 2 San Giorgio of Mantua —
- 3 Bigarello —
- 4 Villa Garibaldi - Fraction of the municipality of Roncoferraro, until 1867 it was called Carzédole, name coming from the sedge (carèsa in dialect), a typical marsh plant. Carzédole is believed to be the place of origin of the Bonacolsi family, lords of Mantua. After the annexation to the Kingdom of Italy in 1866, the town took on its current name because they wanted to celebrate Giuseppe Garibaldi, who stayed at the family villa of Giuseppe Nuvolari, a rich landowner and Garibaldi veteran of the expedition of the Thousand.
- 5 Roncoferraro —
Governolo, basin of S. Leone
- 6 Governolo - It is one of the two places where it is assumed that the meeting between Pope Leo I and Attila took place in 452, which stopped the raids of the Hun leader. During the conquest of Italy, Attila stopped on the Po, in the locality handed down with the name of "Ager Ambulejus". The fact that in ancient times Governolo was referred to as Ambuletum strengthens the hypothesis that the meeting actually took place in its territory. Here he met an embassy formed by the prefect Trigezio, the consul Avienno and Pope Leo I. After the meeting Attila withdrew with his own troops without claiming either on the hand of Honoria or on the lands previously claimed. Governolo was the site in 1397 of an atrocious naval battle between the army of Carlo I Malatesta and that of the Duke of Milan. Charles I, defending Mantua and passing the Po near Bondeno, forcibly entered Governolo and took the canal away from the ducals. In this place, on the evening of November 25, 1526, the Renaissance leader Giovanni delle Bande Nere, during a bitter battle, was hit in the leg by a falconet blow (probably supplied by Alfonso I d'Este), which gave him a very serious wound. Transported to Mantua, the unstoppable gangrene within a few days led to his death on November 30, 1526.
- 7 Sustinente —
- 8 Serravalle a Po —
- 9 Ostiglia —
Castle of Villimpenta
- 10 Villimpenta - It is the most important center for the cultivation of rice. The town has remote origins and numerous archaeological finds date the settlement back to the Neolithic and Bronze Age. The oldest quotation dates back to 1047 and speaks of a castellum in Villapicta owned by the abbey of San Zeno di Verona, donated to them by the emperor Henry III. Villimpenta was ceded to the control of the Veronese until 1243, when the Mantuans regained possession of the area, also imprisoning the supporters of Ezzelino da Romano. In the fourteenth century it passed under the Scaligeri, the Visconti and in 1391 definitively under the Gonzaga with Francesco I Gonzaga, lord of Mantua, who bought the area including the village and the ancient castle from Gian Galeazzo Visconti. The Gonzagas ruled until 1708, the year of their fall.
Castel d'Ario, the castle
- 11 Castel d'Ario - Located about 19 kilometers east of Mantua, it is the birthplace of Tazio Nuvolari, an internationally renowned car and motorcycle racer. The best known traditional event in Castel d'Ario is "the bigolada", which consists in the distribution of bigoi with sardines, that is spaghetti made with a pressure press, with salted anchovies. The event takes place on the first day of Lent since the 19th century. Historical sources trace its birth back to the year 1873 if not to the date of March 7, 1848. The castle is an ancient stronghold dating back to the 10th century which preserves the original urban layout, as well as some buildings and defensive works, including the five towers.
- 12 Castelbelforte —
- 13 Castiglione Mantovano - To see the castle, built on a natural relief on the ancient road that connected Mantua to Verona, has a square plan surrounded by crenellated walls and eight quadrilateral towers. At the beginning of the 13th century it was destroyed by the Veronese and later rebuilt. The Gonzagas, in the long history, adapted it by reinforcing it several times. In 1630 it was sacked and partially destroyed by the lansquenets. Inside the fortification there are two farmhouses and a 16th century building. The moat that surrounded the walls is still partially present today.
- 14 Pozzolo —
- 15 Massimbona - The importance of the village over the centuries is linked to the presence of two peculiar elements of its landscape: the via Postumia, dating back to Roman times, which, passing through the hamlet, represented a fundamental link between the cities of Mantua and Verona , favoring above all the passage of merchants and pilgrims, and the river Mincio, which stagnates here forming a sort of ford, and which favored the construction of a mill.
- 16 Marmirolo —
Bosco Fontana, Gonzaga's building
- 17 Bosco Fontana Nature Reserve - The first historical notes that mention the Bosco Fontana date back to the fourteenth century. Between the 12th and 13th centuries the Gonzagas, future lords of Mantua, came into possession of a large estate between the Mincio, Goito is Marmirolo, which at the time was covered by a vast and dense forest and very rich in game and transformed it into a large hunting reserve. The Gonzagas were responsible for the primary initiative of those protectionist bonds that have brought to us, through the thousand and one vicissitudes that have occurred over the centuries, of this intact natural corner of the Po valley. Although it is a biotope with very specific characteristics of a lowland forest, Bosco Fontana has within it some microsystems that enrich its environmental characteristics and increase its botanical diversity.
- 18 Porto Mantovano —
Return
Take the A22 Autostrada del Brennero motorway at the Mantova nord tollbooth.
Safety
Around
Excursions
Morainic hills of Lake Garda
- Lake Garda - It is one of the great Lombard lakes; the eastern shore is Venetian, the tip to the north it is thirty. A destination for climatic tourism since the nineteenth century, every coastal town lives and develops with tourism. Main destinations are Sirmione, Desenzano del Garda, Salò, Riva del Garda, Garda, Peschiera del Garda.
Itineraries
- In the lands of the Gonzagas - An itinerary to discover what were the ancient capitals of the Gonzaga state.
