The original plan for this birthday was a trip to Venice. A kind friend had offered us the opportunity to stay somewhere, and the city was supposed to be relatively empty for the time of year. However, especially just before the Chagim, and with the numbers creeping up again, it did not seem sensible to travel by public transport, so we decided to wait until a more auspicious moment.
Nu, we needed to find somewhere to go for the day, somewhere reachable in the Pandina. Then L suggested Mantova. I knew sod all about Mantova, and initially wasn't very enthusiastic. How wrong I was!
The weather was lovely - just hot enough for L, but heading for autumn in a way that meant I could wear long trousers and sandals. And this was our first view of the city. With swans. Not the greatest photo, especially because it really cannot convey the WOW factor of suddenly being hit by this view from the car.
We were trying to make it there by 10:30 am so we had a shot at getting into the synagogue before it closed. The lady on the phone said the time was inflexible because of their alarm system. We just made it, and while the docent concluded her previous meeting, Piglet got a chance to pose again:
Our guide began by asking us to prepare a small donation for the work of the synagogue to be given to her at the end of her tour. She then took us straight into the sanctuary. She told us everything, about the past, her past, the current community ... including the incongruent information that the rabbi in Verona had recently divorced his wife.
It really was a quite lovely conversation in the end. At one point, while I was taking some pictures, she asked L if I was married. L said no, and that we are together, which she took quite well I think as before we left she said next time we come to Mantova we should call her and all go for a coffee together. I do wonder, though, if she had been thinking that I might be a prospective match for the newly-single rabbi!
This visit made our day, and anything else would be icing on the cake. Speaking of which, we then walked to the Centro Storico
and found a cafe with a table partly in the sun & partly in the shade where we could partake of some refreshments and I could receive my birthday bounty.
Maybe when you get to be this old you are a bit tired and don't want to see everything, or maybe you realise that you don't have to tick all the tourist boxes. We wandered for a while. I learned about a local delicacy - Mostarda Mantovana (more fruit than savoury condiment)
We had a lovely picnic lunch in the garden of the Palazzo Ducale. Mantova is quite a meaty place, and porky also, so L had prepared some delicious panini full of ingredients that kosher and veggie folk could enjoy without fear. Then we went to get a map from the tourist info office, which happens to be in Rigoletto's house, so Piglet was able to pose with the statue in the garden, and "Pigoletto" came to be!
I'd been up late the night before trying to make some peach jam, and was beginning to run out of steam. But there was one other place that I definitely had to visit. We bought a postcard for my niece by the Basilica di Sant'Andrea, and then walked through what was once the Jewish Ghetto.
There is so much to see when walking through a city, and on so many levels: up above eye level & down; shapes and colours of buildings & details of windows, walls and doors; people and what they are doing. This was one of my favourite details, from a door somewhere between the synagogue and the Piazza delle Erbe. Is it a tree, or an alien?
Our final planned destination was the Casa del Rabbino. It is a 17th-century building from the ghetto, and doesn't seem to have an actual rabbi connected to it. Thus this rabbina had to have a look. Unfortunately from a visitor's point of view it is a private building, and cannot be visited. So we took a few pictures from the outside
We considered visiting Palazzo Te, especially the Chamber of Giants, but we passed the car park on the way there, and decided to drive there, and then decided to keep driving. We hope to return to Mantova, and to begin the trip at Palazzo Te with our batteries fully charged. We beat the rush hour on the autostrada, and made it home with time to rest before a celebratory dinner with friends. What a wonderful day! What a great suggestion by L! Grazie mille!
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