Nestled in the foothills of the Alps is a beautiful city whose football club in recent decades has fielded Baggio, Pirlo, Hagi, Toni, Guardiola and up-and-coming Italy international Sandro Tonali. Brescia Calcio is a very, very good day out.
There’s nothing quite like football under the floodlights. It’s a Friday night in the Lombardy region of Italy and I have paid just €16 to sit high up in what feels like a temporary stand. I don’t have vertigo, but there’s something disconcerting about staring through the gaps at the concrete concourse far beneath your feet.
This is the Stadio Mario Rigamonti, home of Brescia Calcio. The stadium is named after the Il Grande Torino player who turned out just 13 times for Le Rondinelle (the Swallows) before moving on to Lecce. Built in 1959, it’s a bit of a mish-mash of a ground, to be honest; the near-17,000-capacity oval means there are large grassy gaps behind both goals littered with advertising hoardings, but what an atmosphere!
If you can to a match under the lights then you will enjoy the full tifo effect of the ultras in the Curva Nord.
Despite leading the division, Brescia seemed to struggle to get going in the match I went to see versus Venezia, who brought a few fans down with them from the Veneto. The home side did huff and puff for a 2-0 win, with the impressive Torregrossa scoring just before the break and Tonali with the clincher ten minutes from time.
Brescia secured promotion and I wish the club well in Serie A. It’s a raw and authentic experience. Exactly what we groundhoppers crave!
Brescia Football Club was founded in 1911 by local English workers and entered the third tier. The club had a steady run in Serie A from its inception as a nation-wide tournament in the 1929-30 season. The famous ‘V’ in the club’s blue shirt first appeared in 1927 so that it could use the ground of another club Virtus. It has disappeared and reappeared over the decades.
Brescia Calcio has only won minor trophies during its history – four Serie B titles, including the 2018-19 season when I visited, two Serie C titles, the Anglo-Italian Cup in 1994 and La Coppa dell’Amicizia in 1967.
Its key rival is Atalanta of Bergamo and, as a result, Brescia enjoys a ‘gemellaggio’ – a twinning of ultras – with AC Milan fans, who also have a rivalry with Atalanta, which sits geographically between the two cities.
Brescia is situated between Verona and Parma. It has a classic baroque heart with some Mussolini-era art deco elements but from the castle, you can get a great 360-degree view of the city and its surrounds. It’s also near Lake Garda.
I thoroughly enjoyed my short visit and would most certainly revisit.
Can you believe it? Brescia has a metro system! Yes, this Lombardian city of 200,000 people has an underground train system that will take you from the city centre to a few minutes’ walk from the Stadio Mario Rigamonti at a stop called Mompiano.
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