In the Virgil Museum between Shakespeare, the Holden School and the Georgics

Literary legend has it that Romeo acquired the fatal and venomous mandrake in that Vicolo dei Lattonai from which one now accesses the steps of Palazzo del Podestà that lead to the Museum dedicated to the intellectual and tutelary deity of the city that Virgil still is. The immersive experience that can be had here, which is also accessible to the disabled and school groups, is first and foremost architectural and historical because this set of ten buildings encompasses different eras and construction and decorative styles, including the prison cells used until a century ago, the Arengario and the Masseria. Between the Hall of the Bucolics and the Hall of the Georgics, one encounters the author of the Aeneid in his supposed 2nd-century B.C. throne, in the medieval bust and in the interactive narrative panels designed by the Holden School, as well as in an extraordinary 16th-century fresco. Fascinating are the frescoes that emerged during the post-earthquake restoration because they interpret the months of the year and their surprising metamorphoses in harmony with the themes dear to Virgil: searching on the walls for King Arthur and the many plants is a useful exercise to enter into intimacy with this Palazzo del Podestà, which even offers winged perspectives on the Torre della Gabbia, the latter soon to be opened to the public.