Farewell Mantua, and along we go to Innsbruck!

Mantua is a beautiful city, but now, our road, the Road of Faith and Art, takes us further north, through the Brenner Pass, past the Alps, into Austria, where we came to visit Innsbruck and its beautiful churches.

But we before leave fair Mantua, on our way back we from the Palazzo Ducale, Estela my wife said: "What is a clown doing in the garden of that little house?"

Rigoletto, the court jest, doesn't look

like someone that would make you

laugh. He is indeed very sad, and in

no joking mood. His schemes have

led to his own daughters death. He

sings, Maledizione!

We went past the front gate of a small house on the corner in Mantua, behind the Duomo we described a few days ago. Once past the gate, we were in a small little garden, maybe some 20 feet wide and 15 feet from the gate to the front door of the residence, parting from the Mantua of Palaces, Paintings and Monuments, into the Mantua of Music, and the sad life of a lonely jest, none other than Rigoletto, from the Opera of Giuseppe Verdi,

This was the house the inspired Giuseppe Verdi

for his Opera Rigoletto.

 

Estela, my wife, views the Palazzo Ducale,

with the view of the lake behind her Mantua

 

After some time driving, we cross the bridge over the river in Bassano di Grappa, on our way to Innsbruck. Bassano di Grappa represented a detour from the shortest route to Innsbruck, but it was a stop worth our while.

 

The mist swallows the bridge across the river,

in Bassano di Grappa.

In every place you look in Innsbruck,

you always find mountains

in the background.

 

Innsbruck means Inn Bridge, or Bridge across the Inn river. Innsbruck is halfway between Munich, center of Bavaria, and Verona, Italy. It is the most important city of the Tyrol Region. Historically, its importance grew enormously at the end of the end of the XV Century when Innsbruck became the royal residence of Maximilian I. Later this week we will discuss the beautiful church, the Hofkirche, where he is buried in Innsbruck.

The Kaiserliche Hofburg or Imperial Palace

Innsbruck

 

Andreas Hofer, the hero of the Tyrol Region, the freedom fighter who defeated Napoleons army, was finally captured in 1810, court-martialed, and shot in Mantua. That is the historical connection between Mantua and Innsbruck, where Hofer's body was brought back and buried. Hofer gave the last coins in his pockets to the Lieutenant in charge of the firing squad, and asked him: Please shoot straight!