A perfect grid of orthogonal streets, a square that looks like the set of an art film, a river that flows not far away: Pomponesco, in the province of Mantua, is one of those villages that unveil themselves without haste, in balance between architectural beauty and natural harmony. The first impact comes from the geometry: straight, symmetrical streets that intersect as in a chessboard. This is due to the imprint left in the late 1500s by Giulio Cesare Gonzaga, who planned the expansion of the town around the area of the old castle. Today the castle is gone, but its emptiness has become a visual force: the large Piazza XXIII Aprile, wide and arcaded on all sides, has remained virtually unchanged since the 17th century. Buildings that once housed courtly families, now soberly restored residences and rooms, face here. The square is one of those places that alone are enough to make a visit meaningful. Further on the scenery changes but keeps the pace: the small square that narrows toward the steps of the embankment, the twin towers of the Archpriestal Church of Santa Felicita and the town hall, and the porticoes that accompany the step. In the church, three round-arched naves and a neoclassical layout tell the story of 19th-century renovations, but to see the original façade you have to climb the embankment. From there, the view runs down to the river Po - or to a factory chimney, which the administration tries to mitigate with rows of trees. The contrast looks like something out of a Luigi Ghirri shot: beauty and reality, very close together. From the embankment also starts one of the most evocative cycle routes of the Po Valley: the Po cycleway, stage 3, crosses the agricultural landscape among poplars, herons, hedges, silence. Along the ride, you come across the Garzaia Nature Reserve: 96 hectares of floodplain populated by willows, egrets, owls and other birds that nest here. It can also be reached from the river, thanks to a small dock. For nature lovers, this is a must-see. And if the soul of the village lives in its urban glimpses, there is no shortage of curious detours: the little theater of 1900, small and authentic; Cantoni Palace, linked to one of the best-known local Jewish families, which also recounts the figure of the writer Alberto Cantoni; and the villa of Gerolamo Trenti, landscape painter who made Pomponesco his creative refuge. The village offers no special effects, but the concrete charm of a place designed with rationality and lived with measure. Just walking through its quiet streets or stopping in the square at sunset time is enough to understand that Pomponesco is one of those places where the eye rests and the mind expands.