No culinary tour of Italy is complete without a visit to Mantua. This gastronomic haven is the home of pumpkin tortelli, slow-cooked sauces and some of Italy's finest restaurants. These include three within a 40km radius of the city which now share a total of six Michelin stars, Dal Pescatore in Canneto sull' Oglio, L'Ambasciata in Quistello and Il Bersagliere in Goito. In a historical context, Mantua gained its fame in Roman times as the home town of Virgil, born around 70BC. This former capital of the Gonzaga dukes, who ruled Mantua for three centuries, is one of the most atmospheric old cities in the country.

These are among the best hotels to stay in:

SAN LORENZO
Piazza Concordia 14 (00 39 0376 220 500; www.hotelsanlorenzo.it). Right in the centre of town near atmospheric Piazza Broletto. Rooms are mostly large and comfortable and there is a panoramic terrace with views over the 11th-century Rotonda di San Lorenzo opposite. £

HOTEL BROLETTO
Via Accademia 1 (00 39 0376 326 784). A good budget option £

VILLA BOGONI
Via Vittorio Veneto, Sorga (00 39 0457 370 129; www.villabogoni.it). A once-princely rustic estate with frescoes by a follower of Giulio Romano. £

AL DUCA
Via della Stamperia 18 (00 39 0375 220 021). A family-run three-star hotel in a quiet part of town, with an unexpectedly opulent marble-columned entrance hall. £

DAL PESCATORE
Canneto sull'Oglio, 38km west of Mantua, just off SS10 (00 39 0376 723 001; www.dalpescatore.com). Eating and drinking in what French superchef Paul Bocuse recently described as 'the best restaurant in the world' is indeed superlative. It offers the kind of meal that will leave your store of adjectives vastly depleted. Bocuse went on to say that 'it's the only three-star Michelin restaurant that makes you feel at home.' Originally opened as a humble trattoria di campagna, it stayed that way until 1974 when Antonio Santini and his wife Nadia, took over the reins from his grandfather in 1974. Inspired by a tour of leading French relais, they were convinced that something similar could work here and Nadia is considered one of Italy's most talented chefs, coached in part by her mother-in-law who still works in the kitchen, overseeing the making of the restaurant's bread and pasta. Dishes include a compote of tomatoes, aubergines and basil with sea salt, a double pasta taster of tortelli di zucca, three cheese tortelli (with Pecorino, Parmesan and Ricotta) and pike with polenta. Dal Pescatore was featured in our special feature on European restaurants. Closed Mondays and Tuesdays, 2-24 January and from 14 August to 8 September.

L'AMBASCIATA
Quistello (00 39 0376 619 169; www.ristoranteambasciata.it). Quistello is home to this extraordinary Michelin-starred restaurant on the banks of the River Oglio. Presided over by chef Romano Tamani, its eclectic, decadent interior features rich, damask tablecloths, Persian rugs and burnished silver candelabra. Tamani's aim was to recreate the culinary traditions of the Renaissance while remaining true to local ingredients and local taste. Tamani is undoubtedly one of Italy's great pasta chefs, demonstrated by his delicate, delirious agnolini with sausage meat cooked in butter and Parmesan. Closed Sunday evenings, Mondays, part of January and throughout August.

IL BERSAGLIERE
Goito, 18km north-west of Mantua, on SS236 (00 39 0376 60007). The Michelin-starred cooking of Massimo Ferrari is militantly traditional, in the French-influenced, cordon-bleu tradition. Local specialities such as marinated eel with shallots co-exist with transalpine dishes involving foie gras or oysters. The main courses are dominated by marine and freshwater fish, and the ubiquitous game: rabbit, pheasant and duck. Desserts reflect the Mantuan taste for sweet and sour combinations; there is even a balsamic-vinegar ice-cream, served with a rice, strawberry and honey tartlet. Closed Mondays, Tuesdays and throughout August.

AQUILA NIGRA
Vicolo Bonacolsi 4 (00 39 0376 327 180). In a late Gothic townhouse near the Palazzo Ducale, the Aquila Nigra is currently the best of the restaurants in Mantua itself. The cuisine, like the dècor, combines respect for tradition with a light, creative touch. Closed Sundays, Mondays and throughout August.

IL CIGNO - TRATTORIA DEI MARTINI
Piazza Carlo d'Arco 1 (00 39 0376 327 101). Closed Monday, Tuesdays and throughout August. One of the trailblazers of new Mantuan cuisine recently changed course by simplifying its dishes and bringing down its prices. Luckily, its trademark dish, cappone in agrodolce, (sweet-and-sour capon) survived the downsizing.

OCHINA BIANCA
Via Finzi 2 (00 39 0376 323 700). Closed Mondays and from 6-31 August. This typifies a new style of Mantuan trattoria: bright, modern osteria dècor and a seasonal menu that combines local specialities with good creative turns, including donkey meat and a delicious leek-and-prawn risotto.

BUCA DELLA GABBIA
Via Cavour 98 (00 39 0376 366 901). A cellar wine bar that does good salads and amazing local cheese or salami plates.

TRATTORIA CAVALIER SALTINI
Piazza XXIII Aprile 10, Pomponesco (00 39 0375 86710). A village touched briefly by Gonzaga ambitions, and left with an outsize, empty, arcaded square. This trattoria is as good a place as any to sample down-home Mantuan cooking. An antipasto of local ham and salami is followed by good renditions of pasta staples such as tortelli di zucca and tagliatelle al sugo di anatra, (with duck sauce). Don't miss the torta sbrisolona, the classic Mantuan crumble cake. Closed Mondays and from 17 July to 14 August.What to seeHISTORY

THE GONZAGAS
The Gonzagas family ruled Mantua for three centuries from 1328 and were able financial managers and even smarter diplomats, asserting their own independence even as they kept one foot in the Papal camp and one in the court of the Emperor. They were also remarkably consistent patrons of the arts, leading painters invited to work at the Gonzaga court included Pisanello, Mantegna and Giulio Romano.

ESSENTIAL SITES IN AND AROUND MANTUA

CAMERA DEGLI SPOSI, PALAZZO DUCALE
(00 39 0376 382150). There are other worthwhile sights inside the Palazzo Ducale, the Gonzaga HQ, including a series of frescoes by Pisanello, imbued with the spirit of courtly romance. But nothing holds the attention like Andrea Mantegna's frescoes in the Camera degli Sposi, painted between 1465 and 1474. These offer a startlingly accurate depiction of the real players behind the cult of power.

PALAZZO DEL TE
(00 39 0376 323266). Built by Federico II Gonzaga to entertain his lover. Inside, you can see Giulio Romano's tumbling Mannerist allegories (painted 1525-1535). The mood is tongue-in-cheek, in one room, a self-important dinner service sits watching a scene of Bacchic revelry; in the next, a huddle of Titans cower amidst broken columns from the wrath of Jove.

TEATRO ACCADEMCICO DEL BIBIENA
(00 39 0376 327653). One of the most perfect late-Baroque theatres anywhere in Europe, designed by Antonio Bibiena in 1769. The 14-year-old Mozart played here in 1770 and was enchanted by the backdrop. It is little known yet it deserves to be high on the list of Italy's top sights.

SABBIONETA
The area around Mantua is full of rural outposts that were transformed by visionary princes and dukes, and then went back to being rural outposts. The most ambitious was Sabbioneta, the fiefdom of Vespasiano Gonzaga, who belonged to the Mantuan clan. Between 1551 and his death in 1591, Vespasiano set about making this Po Valley village into his ideal city, giving it a rational ground plan and erecting public edifices that reflected the authority and culture of the scholar prince. Not to be missed are Vincenzo Scamozzi's recently restored Teatro and the long Galleria degli Antenati.

THE PO
Italy's old man river is full of character. The occasional barge still chugs by, and there are still a few memories of the past, such as wooden fishing shacks with cantilever nets and just upstream on the Oglio, one of the last pontoon bridges still in operation.

HISTORY

THE GONZAGAS
The Gonzagas family ruled Mantua for three centuries from 1328 and were able financial managers and even smarter diplomats, asserting their own independence even as they kept one foot in the Papal camp and one in the court of the Emperor. They were also remarkably consistent patrons of the arts, leading painters invited to work at the Gonzaga court included Pisanello, Mantegna and Giulio Romano.

ESSENTIAL SITES IN AND AROUND MANTUA

CAMERA DEGLI SPOSI, PALAZZO DUCALE
(00 39 0376 382 150). There are other worthwhile sights inside the Palazzo Ducale, the Gonzaga HQ, including a series of frescoes by Pisanello, imbued with the spirit of courtly romance. But nothing holds the attention like Andrea Mantegna's frescoes in the Camera degli Sposi, painted between 1465 and 1474. These offer a startlingly accurate depiction of the real players behind the cult of power.

PALAZZO DEL TE
(00 39 0376 323 266). Built by Federico II Gonzaga to entertain his lover. Inside, you can see Giulio Romano's tumbling Mannerist allegories (painted 1525-1535). The mood is tongue-in-cheek, in one room, a self-important dinner service sits watching a scene of Bacchic revelry; in the next, a huddle of Titans cower amidst broken columns from the wrath of Jove.

TEATRO ACCADEMCICO DEL BIBIENA
(00 39 0376 327 653). One of the most perfect late-Baroque theatres anywhere in Europe, designed by Antonio Bibiena in 1769. The 14-year-old Mozart played here in 1770 and was enchanted by the backdrop. It is little known yet it deserves to be high on the list of Italy's top sights.

SABBIONETA
The area around Mantua is full of rural outposts that were transformed by visionary princes and dukes, and then went back to being rural outposts. The most ambitious was Sabbioneta, the fiefdom of Vespasiano Gonzaga, who belonged to the Mantuan clan. Between 1551 and his death in 1591, Vespasiano set about making this Po Valley village into his ideal city, giving it a rational ground plan and erecting public edifices that reflected the authority and culture of the scholar prince. Not to be missed are Vincenzo Scamozzi's recently restored Teatro and the long Galleria degli Antenati.

THE PO
Italy's old man river is full of character. The occasional barge still chugs by, and there are still a few memories of the past, such as wooden fishing shacks with cantilever nets and just upstream on the Oglio, one of the last pontoon bridges still in operation.

AIRPORT
Mantua is 30 minutes south of Verona airport on the A22. Slow local trains run from Verona (40 minutes) on the Milan-Venice line.

AIRLINES FROM THE UK
Alitalia (0870 544 8259; www.alitalia.co.uk) flies daily from London Heathrow, via Rome, to Verona. Ryanair (0870 156 9569; www.ryanair.com) flies daily from London Stansted to Brescia.

You can easily see the city on a day trip from Bologna, Milan or Verona. The centre of town is closed to unauthorised traffic, though guests in the central hotels are issued with a pass to get through and drop off luggage. To get to the three restaurants featured in the guide, a car or taxi is essential. Within the city most Mantuans ride bicycles, despite the cobblestones.

Mantua's climate is not its strong point. Soggy with heat and humidity in the summer and frosty under blankets of fog in the winter, the best time to go is in the spring or in early summer.

APT TOURIST OFFICE
Piazza Andrea Mantegna 6 (00 39 0376 328 253; www.aptmantova.it). This is a 10-minute walk from the station along Corso Vittorio Emanuele and is open Monday to Saturday from 8.30am to 12.30pm and from 3pm to 6pm.