Thursday, June 19th:
One more wonderful breakfast at Locanda Borgonuovo in Ferrara and then I headed to the train station to travel to Mantova.
I am not sure now why I decided on spending just one night in Mantova. My plans that weekend were to visit friends in Coccaglio. I assume that I thought that it would be easier to do an overnight in Mantova to break up the travel time rather than traveling straight from Ferrara to Coccaglio.
According to my train info screenshots from 2003, travel from Ferrara to Mantova was a little over two hours with a train change in Bologna. My notes mention a missed train connection in Bologna, so I must have spent more of my day traveling and less in Mantova.
I had a hotel reservation at Hotel Broletto. The hotel was centrally located. At the time, breakfast was an extra cost. It appears from their website that renovations have been been done. I don’t remember the rooms being so bright and cheery. The hotel currently has many nice reviews.
From my limited notes, I visited the Palazzo Ducale and the Rotunda di San Lorenzo. My experience at dinner was not very good. There was big mixup with my order and my food was terrible (from my notes).
Because of the heatwave, brownouts were occurring all over Italy. My hotel lost power for a quite a while that evening. Probably, the entire town lost power. I was already back in my room for the night.
Here are some photos of my visit to Mantova…
I don’t have very fond memories of Mantova. In Montova’s defense, an overnight visit did not give me much time to explore, but on the other hand, I have immediately loved some places I have visited just for a few hours. I really did try to like Mantova. I know other people who love Mantova. It just didn’t do anything for me.
Next up – 3 nights in Coccaglio
shave ice & gelato 