The Capitolium of Brixia is one of the main tourist attractions of Brescia, Italy.

Brescia can be a little difficult to get to from Brussels. We got there by car, plane, bus, train, metro, and on foot though. We were up before the crack of dawn to drive to Brussels South Charleroi Airport for our 6:35 AM flight on Saturday, March 10, 2018. The flight was only an hour and a half to Milan Bergamo. From the airport, we took the 8:28 AM ATB bus to the Bergamo train station; fare was 2.30€ each. From the station, we waited for the Trenitalia train bound for Brescia; fare was 9.60€ each and took an hour and 24 mins. Once we arrived in Brescia, we transferred to the Prealpino bound metro for our final stop, Vittoria.

The Vittoria metro exited to the Vittoria Piazza where a Saturday market was in full swing.

Hotel Vittoria Brescia was only a few meters away. We were too early for our 2:00 PM check-in time.

We left our luggage and made our way to Piazza Mercato to pick up my race bib at the open air sport expo. The expo was open from 10:00 AM to 20:00 PM.

Bib in hand, we walked around in search of a good restaurant for lunch. We lucked out with this restaurant in front of Piazza della Loggia. The restaurant offered free welcome glass of prosecco and fried potatoes. We ordered our food and the restaurant gave us each a free bottle of meloncello and lemoncello! We could get used to these freebie stuff!

Lunch over, we decided to see some sights in the city. Brescia is a university town and an art hub. It is also the site of six UNESCO World Heritage sites. We visited five of them in one afternoon since they were all within walking distance.

We started with Piazza della Loggia since we were already there. Pockets of Saturday markets were being held all over the city and they are usually just in the morning. The Piazza della Loggia market was closing down as we started out walking tour. The piazza faced the Torre dell ‘Orologio on the opposite end.

Teatro Grande is an operational arts house on a major shopping street.

The Castello de Brescia was a major trek up a hill. We paused to take some photos of the city below.

The Duomo or the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta was also near our hotel.

The Capitolium of Brixia is probably its most famous tourist attraction.

The city has lots of small art museums or archaeological sites. We went inside one and passed another.

We came back to the hotel for the 2:00 PM check in time.

Our room had a view of the Duomo and the buildings along the street.

Our goody bag had lots of goodies!

We wore ourselves out from all the walking earlier so a nap was next in the itinerary. We woke up in time for an early dinner and decided to come back to the same restaurant. Nope, no free meloncello or lemoncello this time. Maybe it was a lunchtime thing? Men were working on constructing the finishing arch of the race.

A quick and early breakfast was in order the next morning. I loved the hotel’s chandelier!

The starting line was at Mompiano so we took the metro with plenty of time to be ready for the 9:15 AM. The race had a time limit of six hours.

I crossed the finish line in five hours and 32 minutes. It was cold out there! We were not able to get a late checkout at the hotel but they graciously set aside a room for guests to take a shower. I cleaned up quickly before we started our journey back to the airport for the 21:05 PM flight to Brussels.