Bergamo Local Customs

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If you like simple good quality food, then Bergamo is the place for you. Save some room in your suit case for a few locally produced cheeses, cured meats and of course wine!

At least 8 of the local cheeses have Doc (docg or dop) status (Controlled and guaranteed, protected denomination of origin) Doc products (wine and food products , commonly wine and cheeses) have achieved European -regulated Quality Assurance labels.

Bergamo boasts many independent shops - There are very few 'chain stores here', and many restaurants and trattorias are family run, serving local traditional dishes.
The Orio Centre (opposite the airport) has a huge supermarket that stocks locally produced cheeses and cured meats etc too.

Some Local and Traditional Dishes

I picked up a free guide (in the Tourist Information Centre), to restaurants that the Bergamo Chamber of Commerce, have merited as being a Ristorante dei Mille Sapori (Restaurant of A Thousand Flavours)
Bergamo is known as The City of A Thousand, due to the high number of men from Bergamo, who enlisted for Garibaldi's army campaign in 1860, so this is recognised in the Chambers awards for traditional flavours and quality restaurants.
There is quite a long list of requirements and standards to warrant being awarded.

1. They offer own cooked courses, and have been run for at least one year by the current manager
2. They offer the Traditional Menu and Traditional dish at lunch and dinner every day
The Traditional menu includes - starter, first,main course, in house dessert, garibalda bread if available in the area , Bergamasca white wine or Valcalepio doc wine and Bergamo produced mineral water
The Traditional dish - single course meal with garibalda bread if available in the area , Bergamasca white wine or Valcalepio doc wine and Bergamo produced mineral water.
both should be inspired by typical local cuisine, using seasonal ingredients, particularly traditional products with the Mille Sapori mark. They should be quoted inclusive of cover charge and service.
Other stipulations are in regard to the outside appearance -signposted, well lit, car parking, the inside - comfort of noise, temperature, lighting, maintainance, reception of guests, local information, waste management, food miles, energy efficience, low packaging, recycling etc.

In the back of this guide is a Glossary of Local products and dishes, so here are some that may be familiar, but many may not be;

Cheeses

Agri - soft cheese produced in the upper Val Brembana from fresh cow's or goat's milk

Bitto - Doc cheese made in Valtellina from unpasteurised milk, which is then matured from 70 days to a year, which gives it a distinctive 'deep taste and intense character'

Branzi - one of the most typical cheeses of the Orobian Alps and is named after one of the villages in Val Brembana.

Formai de mut - a semi cooked Doc cheese, made from whole cow's milk - again this is produced in the Val Brembana.

Gorgonzola - veined blue cheese, made from unskimmed cow's milk - varieties can be 'buttery or firm, crumbly and quite salty' The tangy flavour arises from the blue veins.

Grana Padana - One of Italys most popular Doc cheeses. Grana refers to the grainy texture, while padana is either the Po plain or Pianura Padana area of Bergamo.

Mascarpone - White soft cheese made from sour cream. This is a speciality of Lombardy, and is used in many dishes

Ricotta - 'Recooked' cheese. Produced from the whey - a by product of cheese production, which is nutritious, with a low fat content.

Scamorza - stretched curd cheese, made from cow's milk, which is similar to mozzarella. White (unless smoked) and pear shaped. I brought some of this (smoked variety) back from my last trip, and neither liked nor disliked it!

Stracchino - Produced from cow's milk, a typical Lombardy cheese. A young cheese with soft creamy texture and a mild delicate flavour.

Strachitunt - Produced from raw cow's milk. A blue gourmet cheese with a sweet tangy flavour.

Taleggio - Doc cheese named after the Val Taleggio. Washed rind and smear ripened!! it has a strong aroma, with a quite mild flavour and 'fruity tang'

Tomino - Produced from raw cow's milk. A short maturation period leads to this fat and soft cheese, being white and rindless.

Meats

Botto Ham - This is produced exclusively from pigs that have been raised in Bergamo, and are over a year old. The ham is ripened, for 16 months, in halls scattered with hay, which gives it it's distinctive flavour.

Carpaccio - Raw meat (or fish), thinly sliced and served as an appetiser. This famously originated in Harrys Bar in Venice, but is a popular dish through Lombardy.

Coppa - Traditional cold cut of pork from the nape or shoulder (coppa literally means nape) which is dry-cured whole.

Cotechino - chartuterie product. Cotica means rind, which is filled with pork meat,fat, salt and spices.

Guanciale - unsmoked Italian bacon from the pigs cheek or jowl.

Involtini - translates as 'little bundles' thin slices of meat, rolled with a filling, held together by a tooth-pick.

Lardo - Another charcuterie product - strips of fatback cured with rosemary, other hebs and spices.

Pancetta - bacon, salt-cured and seasoned with pepper, spices and herbs, then dried for at least 45 days.

Prosciutta - ham from the thigh and buttocks of the pig.

Tagliata - literally means 'cut' - Thick sirloin steak, grilled and then carved into thin slices.

Pasta, Polenta and Rice etc

Cappellacci - A stuffed pasta, similar to ravioli. From the province of Ferrara

Carnaroli - medium grained rice, traditionally used in risotto. From the province of Vercelli

Casoncelli - or casonsei, Stuffed pasta dish similar to ravioli, A filling of bread crumbs, egg, cheese, sausage, raisons, amoretto biscuits, pear and garlic. This is served with melted butter and sage leaves. There are many versions, with each restaurant having their own recipe. I've tried this a few times now, and it's a favourite!

Foiade - home made pasta, roughly cut into diamond shapes.

Gnocchi - thick soft dumplings made from potatoes, flour and eggs.

Paperdelle -Pasta -very broad noodles, which are thicker than tagliatelle, served with meat ragout.

Penne or Pennette - translates as 'feathers' - cylinder shaped pasta

Polenta - dish of boiled cornmeal. Fine grain = polenta fioretto, coarse grain = polenta bramata

Polenta taragna - buckwheat flour polenta cooked with cheeses and butter

Risotto - rice cooked in broth, and stirred to a creamy consistancy. Various ingredients are added for flavour

Scarpinocc di Parre - ravioli style - pasta filled with cheese, eggs,butter, bread crumbs and spices.

Strangolapreti or strozza preti - translates as 'priest choker'!! an elongated form of hand rolled pasta

Tagliatelle -from tagliare -'to cut' - long thick ribbons of pasta, served with a variety of sauces.

Desserts

Amor polenta - soft cake made from fioretto - a fine polenta flour

Donizetti cake -named after the famous composer - It consists of flour, starch,butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla, candied pineapple and apricot, with marashino

Panna cotta - literally 'cooked cream' - simmered cream, milk and sugar, then mixed with gelatine and left to cool and set.

Polenta e osei - sponge cake, cream, marzipan and chocolate - decorated with chocolate or marzipan birds (osei)

Tiramisu - literally 'pick me up' -popular dessert made of sponge biscuits dipped in coffee and a liquor such as marsala, layered with a whipped mixture of egg yolks and mascarpone and served with a dusting of cocoa powder.

Treviglio cake - pastry cake filled with ground almonds, sugar, egg yolks and egg whites.

Zabaione -whipped custard dessert made with egg yolks, sugar and sweet wine.

Bread

Bruschetta -appetiser - Toasted or roasted bread, rubbed with garlic and topped with tomatoes, extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper.

Garibalda - The bread that won 'A bread for Bergamo' contest in 2009.

Vegetables

Borettana Onion - small bulb, flattened at the poles, so good for pickling.

Porcini - edible mushrooms, fresh in autumn, but often purchased dried.

Radicchio - leaf chicory

Wines

Moscato di Scanz0 - Doc wine produced from carefully selected aromatic red grapes, which are put to wither before vinification

Valcalepio - Bergamask Doc wine - red, white and passito varieties.

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Coming across this, quite near to where I was staying, had quite an emotional impact, when I realised that the 'cute' cartoon babies and multi lingual messages weren't identifying a baby clinic or nursery.

Una Culla Per La Vita, translates as Cradles for Life. I'd walked past this sign a few times before 'the penny dropped'!- the 'bin' on the gate (pic 2) confirmed my thought.

In the late 12th Century, Pope Innocent 111, came up with the idea of The Foundling Wheel- a revolving wooden cylinder, that was installed in churches and convents.
Its purpose? For mothers to leave their babies, that they couldn't care for- either due to poverty, or the stigma of being unmarried etc.

This Pope had been shocked into action after seeing numerous dead babies floating in the Tiber River.

The mother could leave her baby in the cylinder, turn the wheel, then walk away, without being identified. A bell would then ring, to alert the inhabitants of the convent/church etc to its new arrival.

This system continued through parts of Europe until the 19th Century.

(Previously, in a convent in Santiago de Compostela in Spain, I'd come across a revolving 'cupboard' that I guessed could have been used for this purpose. When I tried to confirm this, I was met with embarrassed or non committal reactions)

Now, I'm not sure why the practice ended - Babies not being abandoned anymore???? Possible-but-

Fast Forward to the 21st Century...........

Newborn babies are still being found abandoned - dead and alive in garbage bins, in telephone boxes, on hospital steps etc. Not just in '3rd World Countries' but in 'Wealthy, Educated and 'Permissive/open'' European cities, with Social Services etc.

One solution has been to install modern day equivalents of the Foundling Wheel in hospitals and convents etc - a cylinder that the baby is placed into (Known as Cradles for Life or Baby Boxes), which after 2 minutes, starts to activate a heated mattress and ventilation system, with electronic sensors linked to an alarm, that notifies the presence of the baby, which in turn alerts an ambulance and medical team. The aim is that the baby is saved, and is then adopted by a caring family.

This system is in operation in many European cities as well as in India and Japan.

The reason that I was unaware of this service is that apparently under English law it is illegal to abandon a baby/child.

I'm not sure how many babies have been deposited in these 'cradles'.

I can't imagine how these mothers must feel, being so desperate as to abandon their babies, having carried them through pregnancy (probably hiding this as best they could, or mistakenly expecting the father to stick around etc) then walking away-possibly comforted that their baby might have a better life, but having little or no support for themselves.

This Cradle in Bergamo was installed in February 2007.
It is fixed to the exterior side of the gate of the Dominican monastery on Via A Locatelli 16.

Curiosity got the better of me, and I walked towards the cradle. I got quite a shock when I heard a bell ring in the distance, the gate swung open and 2 nuns were hurrying towards me!! I turned round and hurriedly left!

I'm sure that it was just a co-incidence that the gate opened etc. (I hadn't touched the cradle)- but it spooked me a bit- imagine if I had been a young scared mother about to abandon my baby anonymously - would I have left it or not?

Hmmm -so many mixed feelings on this one, so many questions and answers!

Google Una Culla Per La Vita or Cradles for Life for more info/ views etc.

Polenta is a mushy mass of corn meal, which accompanies most meals in the Lombardy region.

Originally, it was a "poor mans" meal - to provide a padding for small portions of meat. It is still widely served up in various ways today, the same as rice and potatoes can be.

During my second visit to Bergamo, I had my first taste of Polenta, which came flavoured with sage. I really enjoyed it.

Throughout the Citta Alta, you'll come across these yellow domes of calorie laden sweetness displayed in Patisserie shops, advertised as being a typical Bergamo cake.
This isn't strictly true -

Originally Polenta e Osei were made of polenta and songbirds (such as larks and thrushes) A dish that is believed to date back to Roman times.!- a practice that is now outlawed!

It is thought that the recipe for this sweet version goes back a century or more, and was invented in the kitchens of the Pasticceria Balzer, near the Teatro Doninzetti, though it might have been known as the Pasticceria Isacchi at the time.

The cakes sold today are made to resemble a pile of polenta, with chocolate and /or Marzipan birds decorating the top.

There are variations on the recipe - A sponge cake, (some have a hazelnut cream filling, some have alcoholic liquor as well!), is covered in a yellow fondant icing (or marzipan - almond paste), and rolled in sugar crystals.

On top of the dome, may be a dollop of apricot jam, and the decoration of birds, which again vary in artistic merit!

Click here for a recipe

If you are lucky you will find a liquor maker, of which there are more than several in Bergamo. These talented individuals make a very fine raspberry and strawberry sherry type liquor. If you find one, it will be one of those, I know someone, whose father knows someone who makes......
Don't miss this chance to treat your palate to this craft.
Included here is one foto, the maker would not allow himself to be photographed due the the local officials who frown on this activity.

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In Bergamo Alto there is a shop owned by two women who make rugs of all sizes with their looms. It is a nice shop and the ladies are soft spoken and will give you a demonstration of how they make the rugs.
In the photos you will see one of the ladies, and i also include a video (go to my videos to see) of her making the loom work.
If you have children this shop is a "must see" experience. It is 100 meters north from the main street, on the lower end of Bergamo Alto. (via solata)
The address is:

Via Solata, 7
Bergamo Alto
24129 Bergamo

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If Piazza Vecchia is the heart of Citta Alta than via Colleoni could be considered as its soul. It is where visitors spend most of their time, strolling up and down this street which reminds to an artery. There are numerous and very pitoresque window shops on both of its sides offering suveniers, cloths, works of art etc. In case you feel too tired to walk and need a rest, I suggest the gallery of cafe-pastry Donizetti.
Unfortunatelly, via Colleoni isnt stricktly pedestrian area as it should be. Your strolling might be disturbed, from time to time, by the residents of Citta Alta or supplaying cars.

Ok OK....Ill admit it, after all these years traveling I still only speak one language. I found it ver difficult to communicate in Italy. I arrived late into the Milan bus station and I couldn't make heads or tails of where to buy a ticket to the hotel and where to get on the bus. Umbrellas dotted the twilight rain drenched street and every person I went up to in my poliet Canadian way did not speak an ouce of English. Ignorance on my part.

Learn some Italian!! It will help you.

Known in Italy (and I've notices also outside Italy) as the most difficult dialect to understand, the 'Bergamasco' is really impossible to get if you are not a local for generations. And I tell you that because I was born here but my parents are from outside Bergamo - though still in Lombardy - and I can't understand it thorougly. The Bergamasco is still spoken in some areas of the town (especially in the suburbs near the countryside) and in the valleys but, as the other dialects, it's getting more and more unused.
It's a neolatin language, developed under the Longobard rule. Its being difficult for the non locals is given by the presence of nine vowels (italian has five) and some consonant matches (like s + ch) that are not used in italian.
The Bergamasco had its fame peak when movie director Ermanno Olmi filmed 'L'albero degli Zoccoli' in 1978 in Bergamasco as to show the local real conditions of life in early 20th century.