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Happy summer solstice! We were happy it was the longest day of the year because we had so much to see in this charming small city. Warning: Long post!!
We started in the Piazza del Duomo where the old and new cathedrals sit side by side.
The old (11th century with older and newer bits) cathedral is a very interesting round romanesque building, very spare but stately inside.
There are some even older columns - Roman - shored up with Medieval bracing.
And dead bishops from the last millennium.
The crypt is 6th century, with a moving contemporary crucifix
And I just liked this guy's face
The new Duomo (17th century) was very flashy and modern compared to its neighbor. You know, all baroque and la-di-dah.
Next to that was this hodgepodge of Venetian and older architecture.
And next to that, the Broletto, which sounds like a new Somerville cocktail, but is actually the city hall -- and has been for 500 years.
There's no problem with mixing church and state in this government building!
But I particularly liked the choice of grotesque faces below the words "seat of government" - seems sassy.
From there we headed to the Pizza Della Loggia, which dates from the 1500s, when Venice controlled Brescia (for about 300 years).
The architecture is very Venetian.
And it has this beautiful clock with "time crazies" at the bell at the top. Despite wandering through the square at least six times we never managed to time it right to see if the clock works and the crazies go bonkers.
Even the Fascists chipped in. The next square, Vittore Emmanuelle II was lined with Mussolini masterpieces.
From there we headed North, towards the really old past of town. Like pretty much every place in Italy, Brescia was a Roman settlement, Brexia, and has a few ruins to prove it.
This is out of order, but the pretty little confection of a church, Santa Maria del Miracole was right around the corner from our hotel. In fact, the private terrace attached to our room adjoined the back wall of the church, and we spent both of our mornings eating breakfast and listening to the morning service. It was very peaceful and very not like home.
This church was bombed in World War II and the interior almost completely destroyed, so it's not very interesting. But the facade was completely spared.
We stopped for a quick and disappointing lunch at the hip but blah Torre D'Ercole- chicken with saffron cream for Eric and soggy panzanella and anchovy balls (oops!) for me.
From there we meant to make a quick stop at the Museum Saint Giulia before heading up to the castle. Little did we know that the museum is huge annd fascinating and would take us over four hours! Here are just a few highlights...
A very well preserved and unique set of bronze heads from Roman statues
Which were buried alongside this "winged victory" (originally not winged, and originally not Victory but Aphrodite.) You can see that her right arm looks a little wonky where they didn't stick it into the new full-body toga so well.
And her after-market wings were bolted on...
In the1960s, when the city was breaking ground on a new science museum, two large Roman villas were discovered under the earth next to this museum. The Villas are very well preserved in situ, and have incredible interior "every day" decoration including this, the biggest Roman mosaic we have ever seen.
As well as some stunning detailed mosaics
Roman stuff was reused everywhere in Brescia, as elsewhere. Here is my foot stepping on a stair in the museum, which is actually a Roman gravestone.
And we went to the medieval chapels - note the s - there were three, each one more beautifully frescoed than the next.
Out-of-order. Another ancient crypt with a contemporary crucifix.
This guy didn't seem to be too keen at being walled-up by some new addition to the chapel!
At last we finished with the museum, and staggered down the street to our new favorite restaurant from the night before. We had another great meal, basically the same as before so no photographs, and on our way out the young chef gave us a couple of bottles of the local aperitif to say thanks. Thanks to him for making such amazing food!
On the road home we saw this trip's worst festival. Hopefully we're mistranslating but it seems to be the Festival of Speaking Russian?
And then a very nice celebration, the Cena Bianca. Apparently this happened all over the world? They are crowdsourced potluck white dinners to celebrate the summer solstice.
Finally a word about our gelato eating in Brescia. We had read the Brescia has a concentration of some of the best gelato in Northern Italy, and we knew what we had to do, for you, our readers. Yes, we had to try them all.
It was a tough job, but we persevered, and in a day and a half we tried the top four gelaterias in the city. In chronological order:
Ribera - strawberry and zablione for E, a chocolate chocolate chocolate pop for me (these pops are a specialty in the city, and who am I to argue?) Pretty good. Didn't rank on our all-time list.
Del Bondo - blueberry and coconut for E, chocolate and coffee for me (I decided that the only way to run a fair experiment was to keep my flavors fairly consistent...) Despite having just finished our first gelato seconds before, this was a clear winner. It was the top shop in Brescia, and is currently number three on our all time list.
We slept on the first two before going for number three, Gelato Artigianale. Pistacio and hazelnut for E, blackberry and Greek yogurt for me (so much for that experiment.). This was a close second to Del Bondo, but didn't quite break into the top three.
And to wrap it up, Vivo Gelato Artigiano Brescia. Coffee pop for me and salted caramel and chocolate chip for E. Bleh. Totally middling and a bummer of a way to end our streak!
Then home and to bed. After all of this gelato we really have to get back on our bikes tomorrow!
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