Description
The Rio is the canal that runs through the center of Mantua from one lake to the other, from Lake Superiore to Lake Inferiore: a ribbon of water squeezed between the houses, cutting the old town in two.
It was laid out in 1190 by the engineer Alberto Pitentino, the same man who gave the lakes of Mantua the shape they still have. With its drops in level, the canal regulated the waters and the floods of the Mincio; to dig it, the marshes between the old town and the new one were drained.
To see it up close, head for the Pescherie di Giulio Romano: two rusticated porticoes from 1536, built on either side of a medieval bridge over the Rio for the fish market. From the Ponte delle Pescherie you watch the water flow between the façades.
The Rio was a boundary too: the second ring of walls, at the start of the 13th century, reached exactly this far.
It was laid out in 1190 by the engineer Alberto Pitentino, the same man who gave the lakes of Mantua the shape they still have. With its drops in level, the canal regulated the waters and the floods of the Mincio; to dig it, the marshes between the old town and the new one were drained.
To see it up close, head for the Pescherie di Giulio Romano: two rusticated porticoes from 1536, built on either side of a medieval bridge over the Rio for the fish market. From the Ponte delle Pescherie you watch the water flow between the façades.
The Rio was a boundary too: the second ring of walls, at the start of the 13th century, reached exactly this far.