Mantova

Sunday morning we went to Mantova, a town south of Verona. It was awesome!! To start, we went to one of the Gonzaga royal family's palaces. It was called "Palazzo Te." It was filled with huge rooms whose walls were covered in paintings. Each room had a story behind it told through the paintings. Our tour guide informed us that the specific Gonzaga who had the palace built for him played a ton of jokes on his guests, and each room had a different joke. One room in particular was the room of the giants and it was faintly lit so when guests walked into the room they couldn't see that the floor was bowl shaped and this lead to the guests falling into the cratered floor! Apparently he also had the servants pour water on the floor to make it extra slippery. These jokes were more of pranks it seems. Man, if those walls could talk…

Just before our lunch at "La Masseria" we checked out Teatro Scientifico which is the theater where Mozart played, starting at age 13! Our tour guide apparently sang there with her chorus and said the acoustics were perfect and the sound traveled beautifully. Everything was very symmetrical. 

Lunch was delicious and also very filling -- as always. We made our way to the main Gonzaga palace called "Palazzo Ducale" of the Duke Palace. It was the best yet! Every room was breath taking, the walls, ceiling, furniture, tapestries were insane. The Gonzaga family was disgustingly rich, they made this palace so large that if could essential be its own town. If under attack, the family could reside within the castle walls just fine. Equipped with servants, a church, underground tunnels to other parts of the castle and thats just the start! It was so awesome to see in person and I couldn't believe that a family lived in such an enormous palace. Sadly, we were not allowed to take pictures inside the palace which just gives you a thought to how precious and exquisite the masterpieces really are. 

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Claudio's dogs are the cutest ever!!