Lombardy's Lion City — Roman bronze goddesses, Venetian piazzas, and the birthplace of the Mille Miglia
Brescia is Lombardy's second city and one of Italy's most archaeologically rich — the 2023 discovery of exceptional Roman bronzes (the Capitoline bronzes including a 2nd-century gilded Victory) added to a UNESCO heritage site that already includes one of Italy's best-preserved Roman temples. The city sits between Lake Garda and Lake Iseo and was Venetian for 350 years (the lions of St Mark appear throughout the city). It also produced Mille Miglia, the legendary 1,000-mile road race run between 1927 and 1957 on public roads — the museum is the finest automobile collection in Italy.
Brixia (Roman Brescia) was a major Roman colony founded in 27 BCE, and its Capitolium (Roman temple complex, now UNESCO-listed) is among the most complete Roman sites in northern Italy. The discovery in 1826 of the Winged Victory of Brescia — a gilded bronze Roman goddess — transformed understanding of Roman bronze-casting; the 2023 find of additional bronzes of equal quality suggests the site has not yet yielded all its secrets. The Venetian Republic controlled Brescia from 1426 to 1797, leaving palaces, loggia, and lion symbols throughout the city. The 1849 'Ten Days of Brescia' — a popular…