We only went for a short walk in the morning spurred on by the fact that I saw a bit of a market happening on via Roma while I was standing on our balcony.  The “show” was only about  8 stalls with local crafts people–jewelry, felt work, small mosaics–but it was enjoyable to see it.

We caught a train for Brescia, a good meeting place for a reunion with our friend Massimo who lives in Bergamo.  We met right in front of the train station.  It’s a pretty station but there are armed guards outside.  Massimo said it’s because there are many immigrants in Brescia and a lengthy discussion ensued.  

I had discovered online that the number one pastry shop in Italy, according to Gambero Rosso, is in Brescia so I had to make a pilgrimage there.  It was about a 40 minute walk and we were talking so much we didn’t really appreciate the sites of Brescia.  It is a surprisingly pretty town with lots of trees and wide pedestrian streets.  We walked through the Piazza della Loggia where there was a horrible, terrorist, bombing in 1974 at an anti fascist rally.  And we saw the beautiful astrological clock:

Finally we made it to Pasticceria Veneto in a nice residential area.  The place was very crowded with people mostly buying boxed panettone, but also sitting at the tables.  We had to wait a while for a table and there are about 20 of them.  We ordered an assortment of “mignon” meant to be one bite delights.  And I finally had a hot chocolate which was like liquid chocolate pudding.  While I didn’t think it was a really good combination (the chocolate flavor overwhelmed the pastries) I loved every mouth moment.

mignon

We decided to take a bus back to the downtown area and then we walked a bit more.  There is a very large Roman Forum ruin in Brescia we went to see.  The lighting is strange but it is impressive.

We rushed to make our return train and hurried our goodbyes with our dear friend Massimo.  It was a great joy to see him!

Back at the apartment, we put together a late dinner and drank some wine.

I think life will be very boring when we go home.  All of these days have been so emotionally thrilling.  Yes, it was another wonderful day.