Bergamo Shopping

Everywhere you go (not just in Bergamo - I did notice it in other cities!) you will find street traders selling fake designer goods. Generally these are bags, but I did also notice watches, jewellery and sunglasses.

These guys have a really good system. Apparantly this type of selling is illegal, so what they do is they display all their goods on a sheet. That means that when the police come along, all they have to do is grap the 4 corners of the sheet (gathering everything up inside) and run off with their bundle over their shoulder! Clever or what?!?

What to buy: Personally, I never bought anything from these guys - I was too scared of getting caught! What a wimp I am eh?

What to pay: Probably a lot less that what you would pay in any designer goods outlet.

Bergamo Alta is a good place to buy a marvellous Italian wine. And I hardly can think of a better companion for it than a delicious Italian cheese. This shop in Via Colleoni sold both of them.

What to buy: Bergamo Alta es un buen lugar para comprar un estupendo vino italiano. Y apenas puedo pensar en nada mejor para acompañarlo que un delicioso queso italiano. Esta tienda en Via Colleoni vendia ambos productos.

Near Porta Nuova en Citta Bassa, you will find the shopping area in Bergamo: all kind of clothes brands from Benetton, to Emporio Armani. Take your credit card with you.

What to buy: Cerca de Porta Nuova encontraras la zona de compras de Bergamo: todo tipo de marcas de ropa, desde Benetton, hasta Emporio Armani. Llevate la tarjeta de credito.

We had the most delightful banana boat that you could wish for it arrived with sails and sparklers, very impressive, but one word of warning , we asked for a cup of hot chocolate and we got a cup of melted down chocolate! I love chocolate but this was soooooooo sickly and soooooo thick it had difficulty getting out of the cup.

Caroline was on the outlook to bring some small gift back home for her lovely little niece and cousin. Walking the Via B. Coleoni direction west, we discovered on our left hand side a shop with sweets and little toys. It was really an inviting shop.
Inside we saw a collection of all kinds of Pinocio’s.
So Caroline bought two of them. These kinds of toys were already popular when I was a kid… yeah yeah… I hear you thinking “That must be very old then!”

Here Caroline demonstrates how to use them.

What to buy: A little Pinocio

What to pay: A few Euro's

Every one knows the lyrics “there is an awful lot of coffee in Brazil”?
Now there is a new one: “there is an awful lot of corn in Bergamo!”

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It is yellow with some topping on it, it fills up the whole window of at least a dozen of shops and it looks delicious, it is called POLENTA CAKE!
POLENTA is mashed corn.

We were convinced this must be really some local speciality.
Nothing of it all! As I am well informed by our local friend Titti, these cakes have the pretention to be such but they are only there for the tourist.

After a meal with 2 plates filled with POLENTA (see my restaurant tips), I felt I had enough POLENTA for the rest of my life and how delicious and welcoming the cakes looked, I had no urge to try any.
Maybe if time erases a little the overdose I had, I might try them just out of curiosity on a next visit.

Bergamo houses a lot of students as well. They are usually not living on a big budget. It might be helpful to watch where they hang out or get their food from to find out where you can have a cheap snack.

I found this place in the Via B. Colleoni 1, close to the Piazza Vecchia.

My eyes were drawn towards the bakery's window.
What I saw was a plentitute of pizza's, foccacio's, breads....
really mouth watery.

Here you can buy a piece of your likes and have it warmed up in the oven (fornaio).

Once it is ready you can choose to take it with you and eat it outside on the Plazzia or stay inside and eat it at one of the little tables, standing up.

It took me till the my last day before I went inside and tried some of their merchandise. It was good!

What to buy: Els and me shared a pizza and I tried one of the breads as well.

What to pay: I paid 7,80 for a portion of pizza and a big warmed up sandwich.

Oriocenter is the biggest shopping center in Italy. You may like shopping centers or not - I am personally critical on them - but surely you can find everything you want there.

What to buy: It's not 'from a pin to an elephant' like Harrod's but quite so.