Brescia: The Lioness of Italy and a Mille Miglia pilgrimage

After three glorious and restorative nights in Varenna on Lake Como, we set out for Brescia. It's a short distance to travel so we stopped off at Bergamo. We would recommend a visit to this town if you are ever in the vicinity. The old town on the hilltop was easily accessible in MoneyPenny and had an underground parking station leading through to the old town district. Alternatively, you could park at the bottom of the hill and catch the funicular up to the old town. There were plenty of people wandering the cobblestoned streets and many beautiful historic buildings, boutique shops and restaurants. Bergamo's history pre-dates the Roman Empire and it has clearly been an important and strategic town over the centuries.

It wasn't far from Bergamo to Brescia and we arrived at the Hotel Ambasciatori https://www.ambasciatori.net/it/ The hotel had free on-site parking and was about 1km from the main old town precinct. I had left F to choose the accommodation here because Brescia was supposed to be about the Mille Miglia on our itinerary. The hotel was very 1960s but comfortable enough and cost around 125 euros per night. Due to the distance from the old town, these were 15,000-20,000 step days!

Brescia is a gem of a city. Although self-confessing to be off the tourist trail, it is rich in history and not crowded. The 'new' and 'old' cathedrals are stunning. The old 'round' cathedral dates back to 1100 and the Duomo Nuevo - new cathedral - started construction in 1604. Both were heavily bombed in WW2 and rebuilt/restored to what we see today. The town's piazzas reflect its history inlcuding the Venetian period and Mussolini's Fascist rule. We were easily able to explore these areas on the evening of our arrival and enjoyed the aperitivo experience - happy hour becomes a meal with lots of small dishes to accompany your drink including our new favourite, gnocco fritto. It was just as well we had a high step count each day. :)

The next day we drove the 10-15 minute distance to the Musee Mille Miglia.For more detail see my separate post under the 'Museums' category on this blog. https://www.classiccarwife.com/post/museo-mille-miglia

It's a great museum, having seen many car museums in my time. It is housed in an old building and focusses on the race between 1927 and 1947. Allow approximately 2 hours to explore. There are great cars, excellent stories of drivers who won the race over the years and a shop with merch that F thought was too tempting to resist. We are seriously thinking about entering our DB2 into this event. That would be a totally new direction for us, so watch this space.

We spent the afternoon visiting the UNESCO-listed Musee Santa Giulia and the Parco archeologico di Brescia - WOW! It seems that the Lombards decided to build a monastery and other buildings directly over the Roman town of 'Brixia' - preserving it brilliantly. The ruins of Roman homes, temples and artefacts were truly the some of the best we have seen (in some ways better than Pompeii). Then the Lombardian art and artefects gave way to the Venetians finally building their version of a chapel on top of the others. The layering of history over time within this museum is just breathtaking. After this, F decided to stop for a beer while I climbed to the top of the hill to the Castello and visited the Museo Risorgimento Lioness of Italy which takes you through the story of Brescia's role in Italy finally unifying in 1861.

Brescia you have taught us SO much! Thank you!

Our next stop is Verona.