Piazza Sordello is the historic and ceremonial heart of Mantua, a long, rectangular space flanked by the Palazzo Ducale on one side and the Palazzo Bianchi and Palazzo Bonacolsi on the other. The Mantua Cathedral occupies the north end. The overall effect, especially in the late afternoon when the crowds thin out, is of a stage set for Renaissance ambition — grand, slightly theatrical, and very quiet.
The Palazzo Bonacolsi (also called the Castel Bolognini), now privately owned, occasionally opens for visits; the family that owns it has maintained the medieval interior largely intact, which is rare for a building of this age and prominence. The cathedral itself, with its neoclassical façade, conceals a surprisingly rich interior with works by Mantegna and Giulio Romano, as well as the baptistery, which preserves Pisanello's fresco cycle — one of the largest Gothic fresco programmes in Italy.