Our city, land of art, culture and history, is proud to host this prestigious and important international sports event.
The meeting between the National Teams of Japan and Italy represents, for this city a very important occasion to present to the sports volleyball world with its structures and its artistic, environmental and monumental beauty.
I would like to address a friendly greeting to the Japan Delegation, remembering that our tie with the Country of the Rising Sun has strengthened during these latest years with the twinning with the city of Azuchi.
Finally, I wish to all the sports authorities that will assist to the event a pleasant stay full of cultural and, obviously, sports incentives.

Fiorenza Brioni
Mayor of Mantova

Info Mantova
It’s an island converted to dry land: this is Mantova, that until the eighteenth century was entirely surrounded by the water. After the burial of  Lake Paiolo, that isolated the city in the South, three sides in any case are lapped by the river Mincio. Its expansion in this way of its flow give it the name of “lake”: peninsula – jewel, it is very rich in art. Mantova hasn’t ever been an industrial city, liking best the quiet rhythms of agriculture and quality tourism.
Mantova is a city worth seeing, palace by palace, street by street, church by church, square by square. Let’s start by Piazza Sordello, center of the communal power first and elegant then. You can go along Via Sordello, keep on Piazza Marconi and Via Umberto I, and then flank the arcade, if you want to go for a walk and a shopping in the center of the city, together with the weekly fair in Piazza Erbe.
Amongst the main cultural attraction you can find: the Duomo, Palazzo Ducale, Palazzo del Podestà, Palazzo Te.