The quiet Lombard hamlet needs to shut up before people know it’s there.
Words, Video & Images Roberto Serrini
The quiet Lombard hamlet needs to shut up before people know it’s there.
Words, Video & Images Roberto Serrini
It doesn’t matter where you go; a bank, the bathroom, a library, no place is safe from these booming voices. I’ve even seen someone pop out of a sewer Pennywise style and start belting at me.
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Brescia drips in opera opulence, where you hear world class singers in grand settings like the Historic Teatro Grande.
It’s getting loud in here, thankfully most of the opera performances happen in gardens and courtyards around the city.
Apparently people like this opera stuff. Tens of thousands experience this loud and lively event every June.
This frighteningly fabulous time is also known as the Festa Del’Opera which takes place every June in Brescia. Over 50 performances happen around, inside, and even under the city from dawn to dusk, and all are completely free. It starts with a sunrise candlelit performance in the Cathedral gardens where an angelic voice dissolves the night to fill the day with random gifts of world class opera. You might be sitting at a cafe Dom , falling in love with the curly haired waitress, when an aria falls on you from a balcony above. You might be pulled into a strangers' suite at the regal five-star Hotel Vittoria to watch a passionate demonstration of The Barber of Seville performed on a bed inches from your open mouth. Hell, I went to go mail a postcard and the mailbox started singing Rigoletto.
Opera gets up close and personal as The Barber of Seville is performed in a private suite at the Hotel Vittoria.
The festival is both extremely serious and wonderfully ridiculous. Yes, you take in the dripping opulence of the baroque Teatro Grande salon while sipping an aparativo listening to The Magic Flute, but you also might find yourself crouching in an ancient Roman sewer in the dark with a handful of strangers listening to Tosca. This is the Burger King of Opera; have it your way.
Art inspires art: doing a little photoshoot with @viverenewyork under Stephano Bombardieri’s The Weight of Suspended Time.
Enchanting moments happen withing the opulence of the Teatro Grande.
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It makes sense that Brescia would be the backdrop to this incredibly accessible festival; the city itself is a beautiful specimen of cultural contradiction. Like many northern towns there is a passion for modernity that thrives here. Chic, slick hotels like Corte Novella that offer modern serenity wrapped in traditional old-world charm. A horny club scene, complete with sparkler champagne service and floor show at Vita & Vita, is so full of life they named it twice. There’s more than enough world class street art, killer vintage shops and craft beer labs to keep any rizzed up aura farmer bussin’ bout Brescia for 6-7 weeks straight.
Some will say its AI. Brescia is not AI.
These modern clothes however are perfectly tailored to a truly ancient body. The stunning 11th century Romanesque cathedral with its unique rotunda walls. The perfectly preserved medieval castle sitting high above, overlooking the sprawling city. The Roman amphitheatre and Domus dell’Ortaglia with mosaics so bright and well preserved they look like they came from Home Depot. The latter was only discovered in the 60’s when apparently, two nuns were gardening in the already ancient monastery and planted their finocchio a little too deep. This, it seems, will be a recurring trend here in Brescia.
The Roman mosaic floors discovered here are some of the brightest and most colorful ever found.
“You know it was a table.”
I’m standing next to Sergio Facchetti a local guide with visit Brescia.
“What was?” I ask, standing in front of the entrance of the towering Roman Capitolium, a massive temple from when this city was called Brixia 2,000 plus years ago.
“This column. It was a table. This was all covered by dirt, and in the middle ages they built houses on top.
One became an old bar that had a big marble table inside for many years. One day they tried to move it, but they couldn't. They brought in many men, even horses. Nothing. So they dug. They found out it was not a table. It was the top of this 20 meter Roman column. It was a big problem!”
The bronze winged victory from the 1st century AD was hidden in a wall in the 5th century to escape being melted down by barbarian hordes only to be discovered 1,500 years later.
Sergio laughs but I am too awestruck, imagining centuries of customers eating, playing cards, arguing, laughing and spilling drinks on the top of this roman column that now blocks out the sun above me.
It’s not the only discovery either. Inside, centuries ago, a very smart Roman hid a bronze statue between two walls so invading hordes would not melt it down.
We are glad he did, because the Winged Victory is only the most significant Roman bronze to ever survive from antiquity. At almost 2 metres tall, this imposing statue was donated to Brixia by Emperor Augustus after the death of Cleopatra in 29 BC, possibly when the city was bestowed with the title Colonia Augusta. Then it just chilled here, in a crawlspace, for two millennia. Imagine that.
Don't look down, opera happens all over town, like this soprano that just appeared on a balcony above my cafe.
What I love about this town is that they don’t put history on a shelf (I mean they literally use it as a table sometimes). Even though this is a prestigious UNESCO corridor - linking multiple high value archaeological areas - you’re meant to enjoy it much like when it was new construction that locals probs complained was too modern for 312 AD. Walk through the amphitheater, drink from the Roman fountains, and best of all, see the finale of the Festa del’Opera performed with a full orchestra at the mouth of the temple, lit up in technicolor brilliance. History here is not a backdrop; it’s just another neighbor you meet.
History here is not a backdrop; it’s just another neighbor you meet.
And you will meet a lot of neighbors. The people here are perhaps a bit too friendly, at least for a jaded New Yorker. Munching on my third pizza from Sarioli one day, I came across a funky little medieval brick tower covered in bright geraniums.
As I framed it up in my camera, a voice dropped in my ear “I live there, would you like to see inside?” Fortunately I had a pizza bianca in one hand and a Sony a7 in the other, so my city-born response to stab was quelled.
Brunella showed me a part of the city most don’t get to experience: living in it. Ancient wood beams, slanted walls, approximate angles - every surface slowly melting under centuries of gravity. She played the piano and sang while I munched on a biscotti drinking a caffè corretto, amazed. “Does everyone in this town have a supernatural propensity to music?” I wondered, as a light breeze slipped through the wooden shutters and I watched people below glance up, half expecting another opera spectacle to break out.
Over lunch, I got all the good info. Three restaurants were non-negotiable. Michelin rated Vivace, where the food looks like Miro cooked it and photos are mandatory. Osteria del Savio where the fillet of Scottona in Lugana passito wine sauce will make you cry. And finally, a tiny osteria hidden down an alley - no website, just a sign on a gate. I was asked to keep it a secret, but if you’re clever enough, you’ll find it. Go for the casoncelli in ragu bianco, capretto al forno with golden polenta, house cured lardo, and homemade deserts made by the owner’s wife who will get you drunk on Fernet whether you like it or not.
If you’re wandering around the city center and hear a beautiful voice, look up, it might be Brunella.
If you’re wandering around the city center and hear a beautiful voice, look up, it might be Brunella.
Brunella showed me a part of the city most don’t get to experience: living in it. Ancient wood beams, slanted walls, approximate angles - every surface slowly melting under centuries of gravity. She played the piano and sang while I munched on a biscotti drinking a cafe corretto, amazed. “Does everyone in this town have a supernatural propensity to music?” I wondered, as a light breeze slipped through the wood shutters and I watched people below glance up, half expecting another opera spectacle to break out.
Over lunch, I got all the good info. Three restaurants were non-negotiable. Michelin rated Vivace, where the food looks like Miro cooked it and photos are mandatory. Osteria del Savio where the Scottona in Lugana passito wine sauce will make you cry. And finally, a tiny osteria hidden down an alley - no website, just a sign on a gate. I was asked to keep it a secret, but if you’re clever enough, you’ll find it. Go for the casoncelli in ragu bianco, capretto al forno with golden polenta, house cured lardo, and homemade deserts made by the owner’s wife who will get you drunk on Fernet whether you like it or not.
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The real issue with Brescia is that it’s impossible to leave, but you really must. Just outside the city, there’s so much to discover. Spa retreats at the 12th century Benedictine-abby-turned-lux-resort, Garda Hotel San Vigilio, which boasts a year-round-world-class-36-hole golf course designed by none other than the Frank Lloyd Wright of fairways Kurt Rossknecht. The family run Conti Thun Wine Resort takes the art of wine from the bedroom to the hills with a one-of-a-kind, all-inclusive, lavishly hand curated vino-sperience. And then there’s the biggest secret flex of all: Lago di Garda, Lake Como’s sluttier and more fun cousin. Warm aquamarine water, thermal springs so delicious even the Romans kept them quiet, and towns like Sirmione, where narrow, flower-filled streets and epicurean hotspots, lead to Roman villas and dangerously good prosecco. No Clooneys here… just poets, pasta and views for days.
San Vigilio is a monastery turned luxury get-a-way. Here’s a religion I can get into.
Colours to inspire a painters palette, as the sun sets over Lake Garda.
While Conti Thun is known for it's world class wine, do not overlook their culinary program which includes amazing house cured salumi.
Colours to inspire a painters palette, as the sun sets over Lake Garda.
While Conti Thun is known for their world class wine do not overlook their culinary program which includes amazing house cured salumi.
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The town of Sirmione is something out of a fantasy novel.
Lake Como is to be seen. Lake Garda is to see.
The moat of the Scaligero Castle in Sirmione feels like an AI fantasy.
A week after I was supposed to leave, I finally checked out. Rent was due, and being homeless in Brescia didn’t feel like a good idea. I grabbed one last slice from Sarioli, a gelato alla pesca from Biondi, and sat in the piazza watching the dark haired cafe girl serve locals with a beautifully gentle, dismissive elegance. I post the moment on Instagram and simply write “Oh Brescia … you’re just so damn #Brescious”.
get in the know The UNESCO corridor here has lots to see. Do not skip out on the monastic complex of San Salvatore and Santa Giulia. Many people miss the catacomb cathedral under the monastery which is hauntingly beautiful, along with my personal favorite, the midnight blue Romanesque church which houses the massive 9th century Cross of Desiderius crafted by Carolingian goldsmiths and adorned with an astonishing 212 rare pieces.
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