Mantua: what a tasty land! 100% natural local products and gastronomic delights, like  "risotto alla pilota" and pike in sauce are the pillars of a time-honoured cooking tradition, refined in its achievements but extremely popular, thanks to the ability to exploit all that mother Nature offers, including wild herbs, onions and pears.
Mantua excels for its food and wine tradition, characterized by the pig: farmed since the time of the Etruscans, it is a cornerstone of this cuisine, cooked according to  several recipes, especially the salami and salamèla. Among the other protagonists there are pumpkins - the basis for the preparation of the renowned tortelli - and two important cheese types: Grana Padano, produced on the left bank of the Po, and Parmigiano Reggiano, which, however, is typical to the right bank of the river .
Mantua can boast a  production of high quality wine, to be discovered along the three hundred kilometers of the "Mantua wines and flavors trail" we can look around in the cellars and enjoy a glass of merlot, pinot, cabernet sauvignon, Lambrusco ... We can taste strictly local specialty restaurants, or explore the nature reserve of Rivalta on a boat trip.
Last but not least, let us mention  the "Mantua rice and risotto Route", which gives us appointment, with its festivals and fairs, to make us discover  Vialone nano rice type. This particular variety of round grain is produced on the banks of the Mincio and we like it for its versatility.
In Mantua, our taste buds  will have no doubt too much to choose from.