Beautiful Brescia

Quite frankly I don’t believe that Brescia is a city in Italy high on anybody’s list of must-see places when one is doing a tour of the country. However, if you can squeeze it into your itinerary you may just be pleasantly surprised. Brescia is beautiful, modern and historic all at once.

photo credit: turismobrescia.it website

Brescia, known as Brixia in the past, has links to the Pre-Roman era and a common myth is that the city itself was founded by Hercules. Quite the claim to fame indeed. Aside from this gem of information, Brescia actually has some of the best preserved Roman architecture in the whole of the North of Italy. You can see the Roman forum in the centre of Brescia’s old town and parts of the town’s original structure are visible just under the street level which is very common of old towns which were founded by the Romans. Later in Brescia’s history, it got the name the Lioness of Italy (Leonessa d'Italia), after a ten day war in the 1800s fought in Brescia in which its citizens led a revolt against the Austrians. Of course, I didn’t know any of those fascinating facts when I showed up one warm September afternoon. I was more taken with the fact that Brescia actually has a metro line in the centre of the city and is one of the most developed towns in Lombardy that I’ve visited with the exception of Milan of course. I had passed through Brescia a few times before, as its a transit city with great links to the rest of North and Central Italy, though I hadn’t the time to actually explore until this visit. And luckily I had a local guide, one of my dearest University friends.

We spent an impeccably organised afternoon in the centre with lunch at a trendy burger place, (I really wasn’t on the hunt for local Brescia cuisine that day I’m afraid), followed by coffee in the beautiful centre of town followed by a stroll up to the castle.

The castle is atop a hill over looking the city. It was built between the 13th and 16th century by some venetian dudes. It is one of the largest fortified castles in Italy and also boasts an armoury which is now a musuem with arms dating back to the medieval times and observatory for all of you budding astronomers. On a beautiful clear day you can see a beautiful view from the castle of the surrounding mountains. I also think Brescia is definitely a good stop to make on your way to Garda Lake. Underrated and underappreciated be sure to give this beautiful Northern town a chance.