Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
October (Monday to Saturday €9, Sunday €10, 1½ hours). They skirt lotus flowers, reed
beds and heron roosts, and provides great city views.
Both companies also offer longer trips to San Benedetto Po (one-way/return Monday to
Saturday €13.50/19, Sunday €15.50/20; 2½ hours one-way) through the Mincio park. The
trip leaves Mantua from the jetty on Lungolago dei Gonzaga.
WORTH A TRIP
DAL PESCATORE
Petals of egg pasta frame slices of guinea fowl caramelised in honey saffron while silky tortellini are stuffed to
bursting with pumpkin, nutmeg, cinnamon and candied mostarda - you can practically eat the Mantuan coun-
tryside in Nadia Santini's internationally acclaimed restaurant
Dal Pescatore
( 0376 72 30 01;
www.dalpescatore.com
;
Località Runate, Canneto sull'Oglio; meals €150-250; noon-4pm & 7.30pm-late
Thu-Sun, 7.30pm-late Wed; ). What's even more surprising is that Italy's best female chef (2013) is en-
tirely self-taught and has only ever cooked in this singular restaurant, originally the modest, family trattoria of her
husband's family. Beneath the tutelage of her now 84-year-old mother-in-law, who still cooks in the kitchen, Na-
dia learnt to cook Mantuan cuisine deftly and creatively - venison comes soaked in a cabernet and blueberry
sauce, lake eel is pickled with ginger and served with osetra caviar. Despite a background in food science the
food isn't remotely high-tech, but rather quietly brilliant, focusing on the essentials and balancing simplicity with
the very finest natural produce.
The restaurant is located 40km west of Mantua in a green glade beside the Oglio river. Nearby,
9 Muse B&B
(
335 800 76 01;
www.9muse.it
;
Via Giordano Bruno 42/a, Canneto sull'Oglio; s/d €45/75;
)
provides elegant and charming accommodation.
Eating
With its pumpkin ravioli and apple relish, spiced pork risotto and cinnamon-flavoured
ag-
noli
(ravioli stuffed with capon, cinnamon and cloves), Mantua has a marvellous culinary
tradition dating back to the Renaissance when sweet and sour flavours were
de rigeur
.
Pumpkin and pork are the order of the day, unsurprisingly given that for every Mantuan
there are at least eight pigs in the province. Frogs-leg pasta, rabbit and duck
ragù
and soft-
stewed donkey in red wine are designed for melancholy Mantuan winters. Bakeries stock
wonderful
torta di tagliatelle
(an unusual blend of crunchy tagliatelle, sugar and almonds)
and
sbrisolona
(a hard biscuit with almonds).
Zapparoli
DELICATESSEN
€
