Tipologia
San Benedetto Po is some 20 km from Mantua. Visitors can reach it by car (Highway A22 [Exit Mantua], Highway A4 [Exit Desenzano del Garda], Highway A1 [Exit Parma], Highway A21 [Exit Cremona]), by bus, rail or boat.
The Basilica Abbaziale di San Benedetto Po is also known as the “Montecassino of Northern Italy” and the “Cluny of Lombardy”, and represents one of the most outstanding Benedictine legacies in Northern Italy. The Abbey offers three guided tours which begin both inside and outside the premises. The first tour is called “Terra e pane quotidiano" (“Soil and Daily Bread”), and starting from the Cantinone, explores the relationship Monks had with their soil in this part of Lombardy. The second tour is called "Le Erbe e i Monaci" ("Monks and herbs"), and tells visitors how patients were (and still are) treated with herbs grown and processed by the Monks. The third tour is known as “Ora et lege” , and focuses on the relationship between spirituality and the intellectual work of the Polirone Monks.
The complex is enormous, and has several entrances located along the surrounding streets.
From Via Cesare Battisti, which has a car park with one reserved space for disabled visitors, walk across Piazza Folengo, a wide Square without obstacles, stay on the right side of the Abbey until you get to the entrance to the Chiostro degli Abati (The Abbot’s Cloister), through which you enter the Museum. Keep on to the right, along the level sidewalk, which is about 150 cm wide, and at the junction with Via De Amicis, go left, and proceed along the street using the sidewalk (which is only 70 cm wide, and has a 10 cm drop without a ramp). Once at the junction with Via Duroni, turn left and continue at the road side (there is no sidewalk) up to the ramp of the Museum, which has 2 disabled parking spaces. Staying on the edge of the roadway, once you reach the entrances to the Botanic Garden of Polirone Abbey, the kerb widens out to about 200 cm, and a firmly compacted gravel path substitutes for a conventional sidewalk. Once at the junction with Via Gabriele D'Annunzio, take a left turn, and proceed to the left side of the roadway (no sidewalk) until you reach the ramp leading to the Infermeria Nuova. Then, to end the tour, take a left turn toward Via Trento, proceed along the 100-cm wide gravel pathway running down its left hand side, and continue until you are back in Piazza Folengo.