Palazzo Te, the Villa of Wonders

Federico II Gonzaga wanted it as a place of "honest leisure": a villa for feasts, love affairs and amazement. Giulio Romano — Raphael's favourite pupil — built and frescoed it for him in ten years, between 1525 and 1535. The result resembles nothing else in the world.

The Chamber of the Giants

It is the most famous room in Mantua: stepping into the Chamber of the Giants you find yourself inside the collapse of Mount Olympus. Giulio Romano painted the fall of the rebellious Giants over every surface — walls, corners, ceiling — with no visible break: columns snapping, mountains crumbling, bodies crushed under boulders. An immersive effect conceived five centuries before virtual reality. I will show you the details that escape visitors without a guide, and the curious acoustics that made the room a machine for astonishing guests.

The Chamber of Cupid and Psyche

The banqueting hall is the manifesto of Federico's pleasures: the fable of Cupid and Psyche, taken from Apuleius, winds along the walls amid wedding feasts, gods and scenes that made the court smile — and blush. It is also a coded love story between the Duke and Isabella Boschetti: I will decipher it for you in front of the frescoes.

The horses, the eagles, the gardens

In the Hall of the Horses, the most beloved steeds of the Gonzaga stables parade life-size, portrayed like family members. Then the Chamber of the Eagles, the Duke's bedroom with the fall of Phaeton; the Loggia of David overlooking the gardens; the exedra and the Fruttiere. The architecture itself is a learned game: "slipping" keystones and misplaced triglyphs — classical rules broken on purpose, for those able to notice.

How the visit works

We meet in front of the entrance of Palazzo Te. The tour lasts about two hours, in English, Italian or French, and adapts to your party: with children the Chamber of the Giants becomes a fairy tale; with art lovers, a chapter in the history of Mannerism. Palazzo Te pairs beautifully with the Historic Centre in the half-day Mantua Experience.