Brandico

Cicciobello came out of Brandico. Here was the seat of Sebino — first Sebino Bambole, then Tecnogiocattoli Sebino — and it was Sebino that in 1962 created the life-size baby doll that cries when its dummy is taken away: it was launched on 5 May of that year, and the date is still used to celebrate its anniversaries. The face was designed by Silvestro Bellini, who took his inspiration from that of a baby from Bergamo. The success was such that the firm reached 550 employees; production ended in 1984, when the brand and the moulds passed to others.

For the rest Brandico is a small, discreet village. Over the centuries the Ducco and Fisogni families held it in fief; the main church is that of Santa Maria Maddalena, of the nineteenth century, tripartite and with a fairly narrow central nave; and the town's coat of arms has never had a decree of concession — the comune simply adopts and uses it. It lies in the Brescia plain, and it is one of those villages one drives through without noticing; yet for twenty years there came out of here a baby doll that became a symbol for whole generations of children.