Brescia

Saturday 20th September. We catch the train to Brescia. It’s a comfortable 1 hour trip. Google Maps takes us to B&B Corso Matteotti 62 where Eduardo meets us with his wife. They have the barest minimum of English so Ursula enjoys the communications challenge. Tony relaxes. It’s good having your own tour guide. Spiral staircase, so it’s good exercise for Tony and Eduardo to get our suitcases up to the room. Quite spacious and you can see some trees and a church.
Eduardo suggests a nearby pizza restaurant for lunch which fits the bill. Tony had found an evening activity, aperitivos at the Teatro Grande. The café is a grand reception room and the aperitivos together with generous tapas-like small plates of food were a tasty and memorable experience. Tony had found this suggestion from our previous guide, Matteo. He, with Walking Cap Tours, sells a digital guide to several cities, including this one. “I am from Bergamo but have many relatives from Brescia. Particular thanks to my aunt Michela for her inside information about this fantastic city.”
We wandered around the cheerfully thriving shopping precincts of the historical centre of this busy city. Population around 500 000.
Dinner is at a family-run establishment, Trattoria Buca, downstairs from the street which Tony had seen on the way to our B&B. Our hosts highly recommended it. Once again very tasty and well-cooked local food and reasonably priced.
Part of the fun of travelling is working out how to do tasks which are automatic and commonplace at home. Washing has become necessary again. Fortunately there is our old friend Speed Queen only a 20 minute walk away. It is now quite hot in the late morning so we enjoy a welcome rest in the nearby shady park while the washing and drying cycles complete. Bonus market happening nearby.
Washing completed, we find the tourist information office for a city map. Excellent. Exiting from a different door, we are spellbound by the sight of Duomo Nuovo and Vecchio across Paolo VI Square. Fantastic! Our guide highly recommends the Brixia (ancient name for Brescia) Archaeological area containing Roman ruins (UNESCO listed). It’s behind the churches. Teatro Romano (1st – 2nd century CE) and Capitolium (73 CE) have lots of columns and walls and the structures are well explained. We enjoy close views as well as the grand buildings and cloisters of Santa Giulio. Simple lunch in the shade a little away from the throngs. The café had only ONE table outside. Perfect.
Our evening started with aperitivos in one of the many open air bars filling the piazzas, admiring the evening activity. Then we had to dine at Matteo’s favourite Brexia restaurant. L’Oste Sobrio is in an alley which provides the bulk of the seating in this warm weather. It is yet another fabulous suggestion. Not too crowded; young friendly and enthusiastic waiters; really delicious food. Complimentary digestifs. Great night.
Monday 22nd Sept provides a complete change in the weather. Every day since the first has been warm and sunny with the last few days sneaking up to 26°, 27° and 28°. This morning, rain. Pours down during breakfast. We relax for a while then rely on the weather forecast for declining rain. These have been excellent so far. Correct to the hour. We splash up to town in the remaining drizzle.
Tony has a bee in the bonnet about seeing the suspended rhinoceros. We navigate towards it then are distracted by a big Palestine demonstration. Lots of umbrellas. Starts to disperse as we arrive. Now: “Where’s that rhinoceros gone?” We turn around and there it is. Mission accomplished.
Now that the weather is cool it is perfect for the long hike up to the castle. The curtain walls linking the bastions were built by the Venetians in the 16th century. The donjon is older, 14h century. Built by the Visconti from Milan, together with the Mirabella tower. Nice walk. Fantastic view. Museum is shut. Fairly standard for Mondays in Italy. The castle is huge. We are able to walk right around.
Simple lunch in a tabacchi run by an amazing woman who is all go. Looks after all her customers simultaneously, quickly and cheerfully. For dinner tonight we choose yet another of Matteo’s suggestions: I Du Dela Contrada. We walk past in the early evening and it is shut. It is in a less salubrious area a little away from the main tourist and business hubs. Evening aperitivos at an outside bar in a piazza. Don’t want to get to dinner too early. When we return to the restaurant we are disappointed. “Sorry. Fully booked.” Undaunted we find Nativo which looks smallish and very neat. Really tasty char-grilled food with Middle Eastern flavours.
Tuesday 23rd Sept is our moving day. Train to Bologna. Our train not until after 1pm so time to visit Tosio Martinengo Gallery. Still raining today so we don jackets and bemoan our lack of umbrellas. The gallery houses a large collection of works by local artists from 16th to 18th centuries, such as Ceruti, Raphael, Savoldo, Moretto. Raphael is probably the best known. There’s one of his paintings done at age 17. There are also rare decorative art samples like jewellery, medals, works in ivory, enamel and Murano glass from hundreds of years ago. Mostly religious but some depict the poorer folk from the district.
We emerge from the gallery to find the thunderstorm has burst and the rain had increased. Hugging the walls on the long walk back to the B&B to collect luggage reduces some of the impact of the rain. We then continue to walk to the station in the rain. The train to Bologna is smooth, fast, comfortable and exactly on time. We’ve pretty well dried off by the time we arrive in Bologna.Read more