Brescia

Brescia is a rich industrial city in Lombardy between Lake Garda, Lake Iseo and the Valtrompia in the foothills of the Alps, about 100 km east of Milan, and the capital of the province of Brescia.



Understand
While the province is rich in scenic and popular tourist destinations, including the shore of the Lake Garda, Brescia itself is less known for tourists. One may that due to its heavily industrialized cityscape it can be found not as interesting compared to other major cities of Lombardy.

Yes, Brescia is famous for its industrial past and for its role as a major manufacturing centre: numerous factories produce weapons (including the famous Beretta pistols) and cutlery/kitchen accessories. This industry has brought the city tremendous wealth and prestige since the 1960s, to the point that an entire second city—the imaginatively named Brescia 2--has sprung up on the south side of the city's original boundaries.

Also, vintage car aficionados flock to Brescia to witness the start and final of the Mille Miglia race, and wine lovers appreciate the local fine Franciacorta wines.

Brescia, however, also has another face, having been founded over three millenniums ago in the times of the Roman Empire, of which several remains can be found, and it remained an important city throughout the early Middle Ages, with the local monastic complex earning a place on the UNESCO World Heritage list (see Longobards in Italy, Places of Power (568–774 A.D.)).

Brescia is a city rich in history, flavours and artistic monuments of great importance. Visiting this city is like taking a dip in the most ancient history. In addition, Brescia is a city that offers a lot from a naturalistic point of view despite its large industrial size. The most popular excursions and trips among visitors who are passionate about outdoor sports are the itineraries that lead to the eastern hills, Mount Maddalena and Cidneo, where the first inhabited centre developed. Alongside the artistic part of the city, rich in museums and legends, there is a hyper-modern part consisting of the subway that allows the visitor to pass through the territory of the city from one side to the other. An easy itinerary to do on foot in the historic centre is the "street of museums" in the historic centre, which includes most of the most important museums in the province.

By plane


The other close airports are:
 *  Bergamo Airport (aka Milan Orio al Serio, 50 km away, and is served by low-fare flights from all over Europe)
 * Verona Airport (50 km away)
 * Milano Linate (100 km away)
 * Milano Malpensa Airport (150 km away).

By train
You can reach Brescia by any train from the expensive Eurostars to the cheap and slow regionale commuter trains.

By bus
There are 2 bus hubs located near the railway station.



By car
Brescia is reachable using the following motorway: The ring roads around Brescia are: the Tangenziale Sud, or Tangenziale Alcide De Gasperi, which goes around the town to the south, and the Tangenziale Ovest is a municipal road, classified as urban, which goes around the town to the west.
 * Autostrada A4 Italia.svg(Torino-Trieste), exits: Brescia Ovest, Brescia Centro, Brescia Est;
 * Autostrada A21 Italia.svg(Torino-Brescia), exits: Brescia Centro, Brescia Sud;
 * Autostrada A35 Italia.svg (Brescia-Bergamo-Milano).

Brescia is crossed by the following state and regional roads:


 * State road 11 Padana Superiore
 * State road 510 Sebina Orientale
 * State road 235 of Orzinuovi
 * State road 45 bis Gardesana Occidentale
 * State road 345 of the Three Valleys

Directions from the most famous cities in Northern Italy:


 * From Milan head towards A51 passing the junction for Tangenziale Est / Lecco / Tangenziale Nord / Turin / Venice / Usmate Velate / Malpensa Airport. Then predente the exit for A4 / E64 towards Venice. Continue towards the Brescia Ovest exit. From there you will find directions to the city center.
 * From Venice, first take the A13 / Bologna / Padua / SS309 / Ravenna, then the A57 to Milan / Bologna and the A4 to Brescia.
 * From Mantua, first take the A22 / E45 to Brennero / Milan / Venice then the E70 / A4 towards Milan / Venice / Verona Sud, finally follow the signs for Milan / Brescia and enter the A4 / E70.
 * From Parma take the A1 / E35 and then the A21 / E70.
 * From Cremona: A21 motorway, Brescia est exit
 * From Turin: A21 motorway, passing through Piacenza, head towards Brescia and exit at Brescia est



Get around
The compact historical centre of the city has a bus system that works well for inhabitants and other commuters.

To get to the outer districts, you can take advantage of Brescia's metro, opened in 2013, making it the smallest city in the world with an underground train system. It features the same driverless automated system as in Copenhagen but with even more spectacular station designs.

The Brescia metro is an automatic light metro line, whose construction began in 2003, and inaugurated on 2 March 2013, which connects the northern districts of the city to those of the south-east area, passing through the historic centre. It uses a fully automatic rapid rail transport system designed and built by Ansaldo-STS, similar to the one already built for the Copenhagen metro.

The route is limited to the municipal area only and extends for 13 km. There are 17 stations, of which eight in a deep tunnel, five in a covered trench, two located along the surface section and two on the viaduct.

The frequency varies from 4 minutes during peak hours to 10 minutes at night or less crowded. Each station is equipped with automatic cash machines, but if you are in a hurry, buy your ticket in advance at a newsagent or tobacconist. There are no turnstiles, but the ticket must be validated before entering the platform. Metro stations are (from north to south).

Much of the rest of the area, including the Franciacorta wine district and nearby museums such as that of the Mille Miglia automobile race, is more easily accessible by car.

See
Brescia is home to several great museums. However, since it is not a primary tourist city, very few English translations are provided, and even if they are, translations are often so poor that you may prefer to try the Italian explanations.





Do
The city's medieval historical center, with shopping districts, open markets (try Via San Faustino and Piazza della Loggia on Saturdays), gelaterias, etc., is a good example of city life untrammeled by tourism.

Travelers might find interesting that, due to the city's industry, Brescia is however a major immigrant center. The Via San Faustino neighborhood, with its cheap housing for both immigrants and university students, is an example of cultural integration that you won't find anywhere else in Italy.


 * Football: Brescia play soccer in Serie B, the second tier. Their home ground Stadio Mario Rigamonti (capacity 21,000) is 4 km north of city centre.
 * Football: Brescia play soccer in Serie B, the second tier. Their home ground Stadio Mario Rigamonti (capacity 21,000) is 4 km north of city centre.

Learn
If you are truly fascinated by the nearly endless parade of invaders that oppressed the city for the past 2000 years—the Romans, the Lombards, the Venetians, and the French, to name the longer-lasting ones—you'll find many historical sites and museums. The city's collection of religious art is housed by several museums. You can buy a yearlong, unlimited pass to the museums for 20 Euro, 15 for students. Brescia has a very old and well regarded university. The medical school, due to its proximity to the large regional hospital, is particularly well regarded. Brescia is not a common or canny destination for study abroad students.



Buy
The historic centre of the city has an active shopping district, with numerous clothing and jewellery stores. City residents enjoy strolling through the stretches from the Portici (shopping porticos built literally on top of their similarly styled and utilized Roman antecedents in the heart of the downtown) to Piazza della Loggia.

Eat
Try the true "bresciano" food, including casoncelli (called in Brescian dialect "casonsei"), homemade tortellini with beef, served with "Burro versato" (spilled Butter) and sage with sprinkling of Parmigiano. Try the polenta (in winter only) a mush made with durum wheat, Polenta taragna is mixed with homemade cheeses and butter. Try the amazing spiedo (in winter only) roasted larks and pork meat cooked for 6–7 hours in oven with butter and flavours or on grill. It's very typically Bresciano!

The Brescia cuisine is based on dishes with strong and decisive flavors that fully reflect the territory and the products and raw materials come exclusively from the hilly areas, from the mountain areas and from the lake areas.

Let's see what are some of the best typical dishes of Brescia that you absolutely must not give up:

The traditional cuisine of Brescia reflects the territory of its province; vast hilly, mountainous, wooded and lake areas, in fact the gastronomy of Brescia is marked by tastes and dishes where land and lake are combined. Some of these typical products are oil (produced in the area of ​​Lake Garda), Bagoss (a hard mountain cheese, extremely tasty), Franciacorta wines (especially sparkling wines produced exclusively in the Brescia area which have surpassed even those French in many international competitions).
 * Casoncelli alla Bresciana
 * Risotto alla Pitocca
 * Beef in oil
 * Caicc (Ravioli di Breno)
 * Local cured meats and cheeses
 * polenta taragna
 * Bresciana-style rabbit
 * Stuffed pigeon
 * Brescia spit
 * Whitefish alla Bresciana
 * Fried lake fish

What to eat in Brescia to taste the typical local cuisine? The typical Brescian dishes you should try during your stay in Brescia are:
 * The spit which is the main dish of Brescia, typically originating from Valtrompia, consisting of a mixture of pieces of meat (pork, beef and birds) strung on raffia and simmered for many hours. During slow cooking, the meat is continually sprinkled with a butter and sage-based sauce, making it moist and tastier, while the external part of the bites of meat, with this particular cooking, remain crunchy.
 * Beef with Rovato oil: The name of this beef in oil refers to a town in the province of Brescia, precisely Rovato. The main thing to prepare an excellent beef with oil is the quality of the meat which must be a young cut, low in fat and low in fibrous. The piece of poached meat is filled, by means of pockets engraved on the 4 sides, with chopped celery, carrots and onions; it is then floured and sautéed in oil blended with white wine. The meat thus obtained is then cooked in abundant water, so that all the ingredients come to form a thick sauce.
 * Brescian-style rabbit: Composed of pieces of rabbit cooked in the oven and softened by butter, lard and Lugana wine; it is usually accompanied by polenta and potatoes.
 * Polenta taragna: It is assumed that the name “taragna” derives from the “tarèl”, a stick needed to continuously stir the polenta, preventing it from sticking to the bottom of the pot. Polenta taragna is prepared with selected wholemeal corn flours, such as Quarantino corn flour and buckwheat corn, all types of corn found in the Brescia area.
 * Casoncelli in Brescia style: Casoncelli are made from triangular or rectangular egg pasta, classically filled with cooked ham, Parmesan cheese and nutmeg. The variations of the filling are however many: with raw ham, with pumpkin, with minced meat.
 * Bossolà: It is the typical dessert of traditional Brescia cuisine, consisting of a very tall and soft donut, covered with powdered sugar. It is usually served accompanied by custard, chocolate or mascarpone.
 * Brescia biscuits: The appearance is that of a simple biscuit, but when you taste it you will understand that they are truly special. The ingredients are the classic biscuit ingredients: flour, milk, sugar, butter, honey, vanilla and Marsala. But the peculiarity of the Brescia biscuits is given by the fact that they are cooked twice: the first time they are baked to make the mass of dough cook, the second time to brown the surface. It is the dexterity of the skilled pastry chefs of Brescia that make the biscuits truly special, products absolutely to be tasted.

As with most of Lombard cuisine, Brescian cooking features more beef and butter and more hearty, German-style dishes than the rest of Italy. Excellent pizzerias abound, including Al Teatro (by the theater and portici on the corner of Via Giuseppe Mazzini and Via Giuseppe Zanardelli) and the South-American styled Tempio Inca Pizzeria (Piazzale Arnaldo).

Authentic Brescian osterias and trattorias are common on the north side of the city center, but you will find that the best are out of the way and, purposefully, rather hard to find. Try to find the Contrada Santa Chiara, a dark side street parallel to Via San Faustino, where just off Via Dei Musei (close to the Roman Ruins and Santa Giulia), you'll find several highly authentic and inexpensive osterias including Osteria al Bianchi.

Cafe culture is just as prominent here as elsewhere, and there are several great coffee and aperitivo spots. Try the Due Stelle on Via San Faustino (also a great restaurant), or any of several cafe/restaurants just north of the Duomos between the Piazza Paulo VI and Via Dei Musei, which feature drinks and unlimited gourmet aperitivo buffets for under 6 Euro.



Drink
Franciacorta wines are easily found. They're excellent, world famous, and very expensive. Try some of the non-DOC labels, which avoid EU regulations in order to preserve centuries-old vineyard traditions.

Brescia is also one of the most night-active city in the whole Italy, because of the industrial wealth. Brescian youths (and Lombardians in general) are famous for partying the night way — every single night. Many hotspots for locals can be found outside the city; in the center try Piazzale Arnaldo on the eastern edge and Borgo Pietro Wuhrer about 5 km east of the center on Via Venezia.


 * Borgo Wührer: lots of beautiful bars such as Nacio, Hico de puta, BW Cafè, Pappavero, and more.
 * Borgo Wührer: lots of beautiful bars such as Nacio, Hico de puta, BW Cafè, Pappavero, and more.



Sleep
Because it's not a primary tourist destination, Brescia is a bit short on hospitality, especially in the budget range. You'll find a few budget hotels in shadier parts of the city, and some nicer ones close to the train station. For hostels, you're out of luck, and bed and breakfasts are recommended but only if you have a car, as they're usually found in the surrounding towns.

Go next
Brescia is close to the lakes of Iseo and Garda. You can take trains and buses to the lakes. The ones who travels with a car will find scenic drives there and elsewhere around the city.

Brescia is also so close to other cities more proximate to natural beauty (e.g. Milan, Como, Iseo, Verona, Mantua, and many more), that you may want to just use one of them as a base.

The Franciacorta region south of the Lake Iseo boasts opportunities to taste some of the finest (and most expensive) wines in Italy, as well as tour vineyards and cantinas.

Hiking and biking in the alpine foothills around the city are open to more physically fit and adventurous travellers.