Getting There
By Train -- Ten trains daily arrive from Milan (2 hr.). There are hourly runs from Verona, with connections to Venice (30-40 min.).
By Car -- The speediest connections from Milan are via the autostrade, the A4 to Verona and the A22 from Verona to Mantua (the trip takes less than 2 hr.). From Mantua, it's also an easy drive south to Parma and other cities in Emilia-Romagna, on S420.
Visitor Information
The tourist office is at Piazza Mantegna 6 (tel. 0376-432-4322; fax 0376-363-292; www.aptmantova.it), open Monday to Saturday from 8:30am to 12:30pm and 3 to 6pm and Sunday 9:30am to 12:30pm (closed almost every Sun Jan-Feb).
Festivals & Markets -- Mantua enlivens its steamy summer with a jazz festival the third weekend (Thurs-Sun) of July. Year-round, Piazza delle Erbe is the scene of a bustling food market Monday through Saturday from 8am to 1pm. On Thursday mornings, a bigger market, filled with clothing, housewares, and more food, spills through Piazza Magenta and adjoining streets.
City Layout -- Mantua is tucked onto a point of land surrounded on three sides by the Mincio River, which widens here into a series of lakes, named prosaically Lago Superiore, Lago di Mezzo, and Lago Inferiore. Most of the sights are within an easy walk of one another within the compact center, which is only a 10-minute walk from the lakeside train station. Follow Via Solferino to Via Marangoni, turn right and follow that to Piazza Cavallotti, where a left turn on Corso Umberto I will bring you to Piazza delle Erbe, the first of the gracious piazze that flow through the city center to the palace of the Gonzagas. You can also make the trip on the no. 2 bus, which leaves from the front of the station.
