I’m drinking one of my favorite Italian wines right now, Lugana. On a whim I checked to see what grapes it was made from and one thing led to another. The grape is Turbiano or Trebbiano di Lugana, but on top of that I learned it is from the southeast corner of Lake Garda near, drumroll please, Brescia. Now that would be a worthwhile visit. Talk about killing two birds with one stone.

Brescia and Cremona are the two cities in Italy famous for violin making. Cremona became more prominent after the plague when most of the Brescian luthiers perished but some of the Cremonese survived. For example, Maggini was a Brescian luthier whose cellos are still copied today.

try the Invernenga. That is Brescian proper.

https://www.vignetopusterla.com/wp-cont ... er_eng.pdf

another good wine from the area is the Mader. We favor buying from Selva Capuzza when we go.

We used to go to Tuscany every year for a few weeks but it is almost 2x the trip to get to Tuscany than it is for us to get to the Lago di Garda from here. We found out that we eat and drink just as well in the area of the Garda lake as we do in Tuscany and the Lombards are not dedicated communists the way the Tuscans are. So we go to Brescia 2-3x per year on vacation. I bring the shootin’ iron and head to Lonato while Frau Wifey heads to her birth city of Brescia to look up old friends.

The Museo Mille Miglia is also there.

And although it's described as an industrial town it is really a very pretty place particularly when you start driving up towards Beretta.

You obviously have not been there in a very long time. As you drive up the Val Trompina on the way to beretta, all you see are women in Burkas. Make eye contact with a new male arrival and he will take great umbrage at this sign of disrespect and try and stare you down until you look away first. The locals call parts of the city little Mogadishu