(nota: This post has been sitting forever in “draft”. Let’s just post as it is and let the gods sort it out later.)
At the Museo di Santa Giulia in Brescia there was a show of Guido Crepax’s Valentina artwork that ran from 30 Sep 2025 to Sun 15 Feb 2026. I read about it on the Friday before it ended. Rats. I then obsessed about it for a week or so, reading more about the city and reflecting on my weekend in Firenze back in July of last year and so decided to spend the next weekend there. In the few months that followed I solidified the fourth rule of my Rules of Italy:
- Interact with someone on any level at least once a day.
- Every Friday morning go see something new in the city, which has evolved into: 2.a. Every Friday study the history of Genova.
- Go out for dinner once a week.
- Visit another city once a month.
Though I don’t intend for the Italy experience to end, I’m not sure how long this era will last (*cough* AI-taking-jobs *cough*) and so the imperative of taking full advantage becomes more imperative-y. I don’t think I’ve been lazy thus far but I need to be more focused in my unlaziness.
Simply: Brescia is beautiful. I’m writing some of this long after both Brescia (28 Mar) and Parma (18 April) and so I have to rely on newer memories of Parma and the less recent of those of Brescia and the two start blending together. And they maybe should. In my slightly-over-24 hours in Parma, I continually compared it against my slightly-over-24 hours in Brescia. That feels unfair not because those cities have sincerely different qualities that should be measured on their own, but that they shouldn’t have to assert their uniqueness within such short visits.
Table of Contents
Brescia in March
I ultimately made two stops to the Museo di Santa Giulia: the first after I arrived and again the next day. Off the train, I headed towards the B&B I rented, going in something less than a straight line. (Parma’s arrival was delayed and therefore harried; Brescia’s was on time and gave me the space to feel un-purposed.) Coffee at a small bar (which because I was so heady about the beautiful day and the beautiful city I forgot to pay for and had to run back) then the B&B. I missed some reservation emails and after chatting on the rental app I discovered that I couldn’t check in for a couple of hours. Lunch nearby to settle in.
The week prior, for Easter, some friends from college sent me an Easter card, thus shaming me because they can send me something even when I’m overseas, and I did nothing even when in the States. Guilt is the true meaning of Easter. Well I was thrilled to get the card and so decided that this card deserved to travel with me to Brescia. Flat Stanley: meet Flat Bunny. He got to ride TrenItalia, drink some beer, visit Roman ruins and a castle, and relax with a bottle of wine in the B&B at the end of a busy day.
The walk from the B&B to the museo took me first past the Palazzo Martinengo and saw a poster for the show Liberty, l’arte dell’Italia moderna (below). The image is beautiful but it doesn’t compare to seeing the actual, stunning, radiant painting. Art Nouveau in Italy as it manifested in portraits, advertisements, silent film and film stars, and fashion was called stile Liberty, named after “Arthur Lasenby Liberty and the store he founded in 1874 in London, Liberty Department Store, which specialized in importing ornaments, textiles and art objects from Japan and the Far East.” This show included a strong sampling of the arts, advertising arts, industrial arts, and film of that period, and included in that sampling the cross-pollination between those aspects.
The Museo di Santa Giulia submerges you in the ancient history of the region, from around the Bronze Age on, and I really wasn’t prepared for the volume of information. That’s what a museum is so that’s on me. We begin with fragments of rock, tools, spear tips, and move slowly, progressively to the Domus dell’Ortaglia. Roman-era homes from the 100s to the 400s CE that map to today’s upper-middle class residences. And like those today, the archeologists had to deal with piecing apart what was original and what was renovation. A typical McMansion in a subdivision would appear in style maybe 20 years–generously–and need major renovations so they don’t look like Nagel prints from the 80s. These domus had similar renovations as new families would take over oversee changes in material and style that might only make sense at the time. Bonus: there was a very respectful group of kids on a field trip and their teacher was so excited and accommodating. I wish I would have stayed for her whole lesson!
I sometimes plan trips, especially short trips, with a soft touch. I know there are going to be events and sights to go and to see, and I don’t feel much pressure to pin down the specifics beforehand. I’ve had to grudgingly adapt after I learned the hard lesson that dinner reservations seem to be a requirement or else you go hungry, but otherwise there have been few mishaps following this reckless protocol.
I started searching for concerts and “top things to do in Brescia” listicles on the train ride there. This is more reckless than it appears because for the first 30-45 minutes any train leaving Genoa is frequently passing through tunnels. Cell service can be sketchy enough in Genoa without adding tunnels into the mix. Yet even against those odds I succeeded in finding a chamber recital by a clarinetist, cellist, and pianist performing trios by Brahms and the famous Italian movie composer Nino Rota. I suspect that programs combining traditional classical composers plus Italian film composers are probably, and reasonably, common since I got to enjoy another chamber concert with similar pairings (this time with Morricone) two months later during my Torino trip.
The concert was sold out online so after I arrived I went to the box office to put my name in to be contacted if a seat opened up. There is a certain type of conversation that has become one of my favorite experiences when trying to navigate the Italian language. At the box office I hesitantly asked about available tickets and the guy graciously made the offer to speak in English if I’m more comfortable. When there’s no line and I’m not disrupting the social flow, I request that we continue speaking Italian and that I’ll try my best. Without exception the person I’m speaking with happily goes into teacher mode and allows me time to turn my thoughts into words, and gives me a pass when those words don’t quite go together but make a clear enough expression of my intent.
Within an hour after we spoke, a ticket became available and was in my inbox. The concert was wonderful.
After the concert, I had a flaming pizza (the waitresses advice: “wait for the flames to go out before you start eating it”) at L’Antica Pizzeria da Michele Brescia. Yes, that is a fire extinguisher in the background. Either they knew what I was going to order or I just couldn’t see the fire extinguishers at every other table.
I’m learning to re-love beer with pizza.
Parma in April
During one of my Italian lessons after Brescia, Marina included a couple of exercises about Parma in my homework. A fill-in-the-blank paragraph with a list of words: “Completa il testo con le parole della lista. Attenzione: c’e’ un spazio in piu’“. That was on Tue 7 Apr. The next few days it lined up in my head with the feeling that I should travel more regularly; Brescia was the start. It was a desire without a spark and this homework accidentally made the connection.
The three hour train ride became five hours and pushed my arrival close to this trip’s concert: the Verdi opera Rigoletto performed at the Teatro Regio di Parma. Verdi is from the city Busseto in the province of Parma, to the northwest of the city of Parma. The region (like a US state) of Emilia-Romagna has provinces (like counties), of which Parma is one. The city of Parma is the capital of the province of Parma and so: Italy > Emilia-Romagna > Parma > Parma. The stars aligned and my weekend coincided with the performance of a Verdi opera.
Until it didn’t.
The train delay and rush to the hotel and rush back to the teatro was not the downfall of my opera experience. I arrived comfortably ahead of time and got to my seat, with time to take photos of a theater less populated than it should be (but very beautiful). Eventually the audience started streaming in but they consisted consecutively and concerningly of only families and only families with young, 8-10 year old, children. I was uncertain what was happening but, based on the small stand placed at the front of the stage, had an uncomfortable feeling that deep down I knew: This was a children’s concert. I went to one of the ushers to confirm. C’e’ una opera lirica o un opera lirica per i bambini? It was indeed an opera, Rigoletto in fact, but reimagined for children and so I excused myself. My teacher gently chastised me for this later, and I understand her reasoning, but at the moment I knew it wasn’t the musical experience I wanted and so I left (it was around 10€ so more of a donation to the arts than a loss of vacation cash).
And now I can make up for lost train time.
Sunday
This was the trip I realized that a 5 PM departure on Sunday was too late. Shops are closed; museums are closed. The next trip will end at 3. I did however find a small monastery with the Camera di San Paolo which is just a few very spare rooms, one of which has a beautiful fresco on the ceiling by beloved Parma artists Antonio da Correggio (left, 1520) and Alessandro Araldi (right, 1514). Both are heavy, heavy with symbolism and wordplay.
A few rooms in the abbess’s apartment had completely blank wall with frescos possibly lost to time. Below is a remnant I noticed in the corner.
Torino in May
After the Parma trip, as I was browsing eBay and following leads across various websites to find Valentina memorabilia to document in The Valentina Library, I found a very unusual spiral-bound book of prints signed by Crepax and printed by Francesco Pirella in Genova. A run of several hundred with a subset of those signed by Crepax. Spiral bound, seemingly ephemeral, but printed on various quality cardstock and interstitial velum. As the shop-owner posted: rare and unusual.
That shop is in Torino and the fact that the printer is in Genova seemed like an amenable star-alignment to make Torino the next monthly visit (last weekend, the 16th and 17th).
I’ve begun using uMap, based on OpenStreetMaps, to create my travel maps (I did the same with my exploration of the gates of Genoa). My mistake with this trip was that I didn’t take into account the scale of Torino’s Centro Storico compared to Brescia’s and Parma’s. My eyes were bigger than my feet and so there was a mix of public transportation and walking, with I think 20,000+ steps each day. Good workout to prepare for the upcoming hiking trip to Scotland.
To the southwest were two modern art museums that were first on my list after arrival: Fondazione Merz and Fondazione Sandretto re Rebaudengo. Merz was first and had a show revolving around Gaza and Palestine. Difficult. The building houses the works of a famous Milanese artist, Mario Merz, but his works were not on display while I was there. Sandretto was next and promised several fascinating shows from local artists however the black limousines and fancy-dress I walked in on meant, sadly, that it was closed for a private event. Next time. Plan B was back to the more central area and the Galleria civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea (GAM). What I didn’t get to see in Sandretto was paid back fully with several exhibitions at GAM, including a salon-like hallway where ancient-to-modern art filled the walls. Rather than hide them away in storage, this was an effort to present them unadorned and un-curated but accessible. Take in what you could amid the chaos.
TOward 2030. What are you doing? is a set of 17 murals scattered east Centro Storico by different artist around the themes of sustainability and equality. Going with the “I didn’t realize how spread out my map was” theme, I only hit five of them over a couple hours on Sunday, post-concert. Although I went to the Museo nazionale del cinema after, I only had 45 minutes and it was filled with teenagers so the murals were the actual and welcome farewell to my 29 hours in Torino.
1. No poverty
5. Gender equality
4. Quality education
12. Responsible consumption
11. Sustainable cities and communities
