I started in due time to Brescia, and put up at the sign of " The Lobster," where Bertini came to meet me, and conducted me to a lodging which he had taken for me; it was a second floor of the house, the first floor of which was occupied by La Bella Ortabella herself. I was charmed to be under the same roof with her, and it was, besides, very convenient for me to practise the duets and concerted pieces. The day after she arrived we began our rehearsals ; the first opera was " II Fittore Parigino ;" the music, by Cimarosa, was beautiful ; the Painter was the character allotted to me ; the opera pleased very much. The town of Brescia was all alive, being fair-time, and the theatre was crowded ; it was a very splendid building ; the boxes, of which there were five tiers, were ornamented with glasses, like those of San Carlo, at Naples, and the seats in the pit turned up in the same way as in Padua. Independently of a very good company of singers, there was an excellent, and very expensive corps de ballet.