Some art-lovers see this as the finest town in Italy, others regard it as an archaeological site, with 16thC buildings instead of classical ruins. A Duke of Mantua designed it as a ‘model city’ around 1580, a principality in miniature. Beside the usual layout of hexagonal walls, palaces and churches, it had its own mint, national library, museum and state theatre. Of that era of lavish patronage much has survived. The Imperial Gate and Garden Palace, the Ducal Palace and Olympic Theatre (modelled on that of Palladio at Vicenza) still constitute a formidable architectural complex in a forlorn and useless town. For a pilgrim in the right frame of mind, Sabbioneta is like a corner of Florence without the crowds.