Brescia

Here we are in Brescia, a much larger city than those we have visited, with the obvious exceptions of Rome and Florence. There is a lot of industry here, and a smaller historic centre.
In Italy on Mondays most places are closed, and as Mondays come around every seven days, we have to make do with rather more leisurely rambles. Today we tried churches. The maps we have are not sufficiently detailed, and sometimes it seems that the historic churches are closed, either permanently or for restoration. Nevertheless we have found several churches to wonder at.

We came across one from the back entrance and spent a lot of time in close scrutiny, then came out the front entrance to find ourselves near an absolutely huge hole, immensely deep. We had no idea what it could be but the hotel staff informed us that Brescia is building an extensive metro. Eat your heart out Sydney. In Rovereto there is to be a referendum on whether to construct a ring road. Again, eat your heart out...

This afternoon we spent more time in search of churches but could not find some of them, despite following all the signs. The ones we found seemed permanently closed.

We are very close to the Duomo (cathedral) and last night there was a show of fashion and design in the piazza. We watched for a while and saw children,s wear and then underwear, and the models, as well as walking across the catwalk, had to balance rich and complicated cakes.. We went back to the hotel but the loud compere and the music continued until quite late, but fortunately the drums were not prominent. In order to put this show on the piazza was covered with sand, then turf, and potted plants including quite large trees were put in place to represent a garden. Today we watched it all being dismantled. It must have cost heaps.

Naturally I have taken lots of photos. My new camera seems good although I have not managed yet to take more than a cursory glance at the manual, but I forgot the charger and the battery has now run down yet again. I managed to get it recharged in Florence and then again in Trento, in Florence they charged 8 euros and in Trento nothing. I did take my old camera so can keep taking photos.

In Brescia there are very large numbers of Africans and Middle Eastern people. Many must be refugees or illegal immigrants. Italy has cracked down on the entry of people from Libya, but each year thousands have entered, and it makes the numbers trying to get to Australia seems absolutely minimal. From the little we can see Africans seem to be in menial jobs, and there are many selling illegal copies of bags, etc. There are many families here and we saw children coming out of school this afternoon and there seemed to be more non italians than Italians.

Tomorrow we hope to see the museums, and then on Thursday we go to the Citta Alta of Bergamo, a small and apparently beautiful city, and from there we travel to Milan airport and commence the long trip home, arriving next Monday morning. We have had a most enjoyable and interesting time with no cross words and much to discuss each day. Dr P is well and says he is missing me, but has been well cared for.