Mantua Events

Mantua’s year has one large fixed point and a set of smaller seasonal ones tied to the lakes and the farming calendar.

Festivaletteratura, September

Five days of readings, talks and events across the city’s squares, courtyards and theatres, running since 1997 and now one of the larger literary festivals in Europe. It is organised locally and largely staffed by volunteers, and it fills every bed in the city — book months ahead or avoid the week deliberately.

Sant’Anselmo, 18 March

The city’s patron saint, marked with a fair and a procession. It is a local occasion in a cold month, which is exactly what makes it worth seeing.

The lotus flowering, July into August

Not an event but a fixed natural date: the lotus beds on the Lago Superiore come into flower in high summer and are best seen from a boat in the early morning. The season is short and shifts with the weather.

Food fairs and the harvest

Autumn brings pumpkin and mostarda fairs across the province, and the tortelli season is genuinely seasonal — the dish is at its best from October onwards. Mantua also keeps a substantial Christmas market in the central squares.

Outside September, finding a room here is easy at any time of year.