Città Alta, Bergamo

Favorite thing: Bergamo Alta is the main attraction for tourists, and well-heeled Milan folk who'd escape that bustling city on weekends. Local museums and architectural delights are complemented by events like Bergamo's International Jazz Festival, and the Mercantico -- an antique market held every third Sunday of the month.

Fondest memory: First a Gallic settlement, then Roman, after the Barbarian invasions, it became a free municipality in the Lombard League (12th century) before submitting to the Visconti Signoria, and from 1428 to 1796 formed part of the Venetian Republic. In this period the town, surrounded by walls, underwent coinsiderable economic expansion. After the brief Napoleonic Cisalpine Republic (1797-1814), it became part of Lombard-Venetia until freed by Garibaldi's soldiers in 1859.

Bergamo is the birthplace of Gaetano Donizetti (musician, 1797-1848),Costantino Beltrami (explorer, 1779-1856), Andrea Previtali (artist, 1470-1528), Gerolamo Tiraboschi (man of letters, 17311794), Bartolomeo Colleoni (military leader, 1400-1475).

Bergamo - Sotto il Monte -  is the birthplace of Pope John XXIII -- a.k.a. Papa Giovanni, 1881-1963.

Favorite thing: You've must seen the old city,its really nice and silent.Its ideal to walk around the walls of the old city and have a beer in one of the bars.

Fondest memory: The Food!!!And the snowboarding,its only a 40min drive to glacier area.

Favorite thing: Visit Citta' Alta

Citta' Alta means upper town and it's the oldest part of Bergamo, build mainly during the Middle Age.

The core of Citta' alta is Piazza Vecchia, see it in the picture below.


There are lot of restaurants in this square: they're nice and you can enjoy cool typical dishes but they're quite expensive.



Going from Piazza vecchia to the Cathedral.

Favorite thing: Slowly walk to 'citta' alta'; the hi part of the city is wonderful itself but if you reach it walking it's more than that :-). Go to the rallway station and then ask for the pedestrian path ...

In the picture another (longer than from the rallway) path to 'citta' alta': from via S. Alessandro.

Favorite thing: Strolling through one of the beautiful narrow streets in the upper town of Bergamo - a pleasant way to spend our last hours in Italy before going to the airport.

Favorite thing: The old city is walled with narrow streets and very little traffic, it's a great place to spend a quiet couple of days.