The Unesco-inscribed town of Sabbioneta between Mantua and Parma is considered a true model of an ‘ideal city.’ Over the course of a few decades, what had been a small fortified village was entirely rebuilt by nobleman and condottiero Vespasiano Gonzaga, according to the Renaissance principles of proportion and the ideal of harmony as symbolized in the Vitruvian Man drawing by Leonardo da Vinci.

Gonzaga devoted 35 years of his life to building the ‘ideal city,’ beginning in 1556, until his death in 1591. With architectural precision and historical appeal, the buildings, streets layout, ramparts and walls tell of the grandeur of the city’s prince and of its lineage, the powerful Gonzaga, rulers of Mantua.