A day trip to Sabbioneta

A day trip to Sabbioneta.

The title is not totally correct, because our ‘day’ in Sabbioneta is back to front: an afternoon, an overnight and a morning, but since Sabbioneta by night offers very little, except a nice place to stay, it could easily be a day trip. 

As it is we arrive from il Castello di Padernello. It’s a fine Sunday in May after a period of rain and the poppies are flowering in the hedgerows and fields, and also on the tops of walls  – time for our May holiday, basically. 

We get to Sabbioneta at a quarter to three, a little early for check-in at House Sabbioneta but the host is ready for us and we can park inside the gates. The room is actually a studio flat on the ground floor. Convenient for unloading and popping back to the car out the back of the room for things I’ve forgotten, as usual. After settling in and a rest we head to the Infopoint to get the all inclusive Sabbioneta ticket.

It should be noted that if you’re planning to visit both Sabbioneta and Mantova you should first get the Mantova card which also includes Sabbioneta, while the Sabbioneta card, which costs 18 euros, only covers Sabbioneta. There’s an antiques market on the first Sunday in the month in Sabbioneta but even though it’s not yet 4 o’clock, people are already packing up.

The Infopoint is at the end of the Galleria and so our first visit is to Palazzo Giardino and the Galleria degli Antichi above. The garden has had the grass cut and the bushes pruned but there are no flowers or colour. Upstairs there are a number of rooms to see with frescoed ceilings and some fine grottesco style decorations as well as a stairwell covered in painted ivy. Unfortunately, the Galleria degli Antichi is occupied by an exhibition by Georg Baestz. I’m not impressed. I admit my ignorance but I’d have much preferred to see the long gallery in all it’s prospective glory than the artworks.

Sabbioneta is an ‘ideal city’ created by Vespasiano Gonzago and much of Sabbioneta rightly refers to him. Our second stop is the Teatro degli Antichi, definitely spectacular, although I don’t visit many theatres. I remember the one in Mantova was very nice too. Everything is very close, just a five minute walk between one attraction and the next because Sabbioneta is small. 

Palazzo Ducale also lives up to expectations. The life-sized carvings of horses and riders are impressive and the rooms also house an interesting exhibition of period costumes recreated in minute detail from famous pictures. A fascinating insight into the life of the times and, unlike the Baestz exhibition, totally in keeping with the environment. Around the back of Palazzo Ducale there’s the Chiesa dell'Incoronata with the sarcophagus of Vespasiano Gonzaga, and a fascinating example of painted prospective which produces an aching neck but is worth it.

It's a pity that since it’s May, everywhere inside is cold and chilly, particularly inside this church, while the sun outside is enticing and warming and pleasant, so maybe we don’t stay inside as long as we could, but anyway by the time we make our way back to the main square it’s about six o’clock. Mass has just finished inside the church of Santa Maria Assunta so we have a look there too. We finish the afternoon with a stroll around Sabbioneta. The few tourists and market stalls are disappearing but the centre is still pedestrianized for the market so it’s very pleasant to stroll the quiet streets. We also discover an Indian restaurant with good reviews but curry in the evening doesn’t inspire so we return to our accommodation for a pastasciutta.

Later we venture out to see Sabbioneta by night, which takes us maybe twenty minutes….

We get off to a slow start the next morning because the remaining attractions open at 10 o’clock. First, the synagogue and then the Oratorio di San Rocco where there’s the pinacoteca. The first is easily dealt with, the second not, because it’s open in the afternoon but not in the morning on a Monday. I start grumbling immediately with anybody available. The young man in the Infopoint had said that all the attractions were open on a Monday morning and closed Monday afternoons, if I’d known it would be closed in the morning I’d have visited on Sunday evening when it was open until 7pm etc etc. As usual, grumbling gets me nowhere (unless you’re in Puglia where people take pity and give you a personalized guided visit) and that’s that.

We go instead to the Museo Ducale which houses religious artefacts including the tiny and not enormous as it looks from the photos, Toson d’Oro. 

The museum has a number of rooms, worth a look although everything seems a bit tired and dusty, despite the smell of polish, and confused. The botanical garden in the centre may have been interesting some years ago but now has a serious problem with ivy which covers absolutely everything. Anyway, the museum is worth a look if you have time, and it is included in the ticket.

It's about half past eleven so we pick up the car and head for lunch, Osteria n°1 Lazzaro, not far from the autostrada della Cisa where we have a very satisfactory ‘pranzo di lavoro’ for 14 euros, everything is good, but the highlight is the trippa.

So, the verdict on Sabbioneta? We liked it, an ideal slow travel destination, a relaxing place to spend a day or to overnight on your way north or south. We had already visited Mantova for the dayMantova for the day and then again for two daysfor two days because there’s a lot to see in Mantova and Sabbioneta is often twinned with Mantova. But despite the similar themes I would visit Sabbioneta separately. It’s pretty but it’s overshadowed by Mantova and arriving in Sabbioneta from Mantova one would already be overwhelmed by Palazzi and frescoes.

The all-inclusive ticket costs 18 euros and lasts for one year. You could visit Sabbioneta in just an afternoon, albeit a rather rushed one. We are slow and to see all the things included in the ticket except for the Pinacoteca and the church, and a stroll around took us about 4 hours, so a whole day or two half days is better in my opinion, in my case a lunchtime curry would have been a good choice. An ideal, slow and off-the-beaten-track destination.