Palazzo Te was designed by Renaissance architect Giulio di Piero Pippi de’ Iannuzzi (known as Giulio Romano) to be a summer palace for the city’s ruling family, which spent most of the year ensconced in the Palazzo Ducale on Piazza Sordello. Join a tour to take in the ornate apartments and vast Sala dei Giganti, decorated by leading artists of the day to reflect the Duke’s penchants for erotica, horses, and astrology. The gardens also dazzle with loggias, a shell-encrusted grotto, stuccoed cloisters, fish ponds, and Federico’s pretty garden retreat. Walking tours of Mantua include a stop at the palace, or you can opt for a Gonzaga-themed itinerary that takes a deep dive into the city’s ducal palaces.
Palazzo Te is an easy 30-minute walk from most sights in Mantua’s historic center and the train station. Mantua is just south of Lake Garda between Milan and Venice.
Mantua can be cold and wet in the winter months, making it unpleasant to visit the gardens surrounding the palace. Tour instead in the summer, with mild temperatures and clear skies to enjoy the grounds.
The interiors of Palazzo Te take painting and statuary to the next level, with statuesque equine portraits in the Hall of the Horses and surprisingly suggestive frescoes by Romano in the Chamber of Amor and Psyche. Perhaps most striking is the no-holds-barred Sala dei Giganti (Room of the Giants), with a depiction of Titan overthrown by the gods in a dazzling trompe l’oeil that creates the illusion that the ceiling is collapsing, a metaphor for Gonzaga's power.
