Commentary Purg XVIII 82-84

The protagonist's gratitude to Virgil is expressed with a salute to his birthplace, Pietola ('Andes' in Roman times).  Some early commentators read the phrase 'più che villa mantoana' to mean 'more than the city Mantua,' while the meaning is nearly certainly 'more than any Mantuan town,' i.e., any other town in the vicinity of the city, not Mantua itself, as Padoan (Pado.1967.1), p. 688n., agrees.