Declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2017, the city of Bergamo is one of the most delightful corners of the Lombardy region. Although Bergamo can boast a great number of interesting attractions, you can still get the flavour of the place on a day trip from Milan. All it takes is to be well organised and to know which are the city’s essential sights.
What to see in Upper Bergamo
Perched on top of a hill, the Upper Town (surrounded by an enormous wall) is home to beautiful palaces, churches and historic squares. The steep, narrow streets, mostly of stone, wind around the old edifices and fountains, opening out into spacious squares where the residents gather to socialise.
Piazza Vecchia
Piazza Vecchia is the city’s most emblematic square, an ancient symbol of Bergamo’s power. Around it stand some of the city’s most important buildings, along with pleasant terraces and cafés where you can have breakfast or a snack.
Basílica de Santa María
This church’s Baroque-style façade with its immense domes and cupolas is as eye-catching as its interior tapestries, and black and white tiles.
Capilla Colleoni
Built in red and white marble, the Colleoni chapel has one of the most breathtakingly beautiful Renaissance façades in Bergamo’s historic quarter.
Palazzo della Ragione
This palace, in Piazza Vecchia, dates back over 1,000 years. It has been used as a town hall, a library and a courtroom. Today, the building is open to the public so that visitors can discover its history.
Torre Cívica
Also known as Il Campanone, its bell tolls 100 times each night at 10.00 p.m. as a reminder of the historic closing of the town gates during the Venetian occupation.
Palazzo Nuovo
Its construction took over three centuries, and it is now one of Italy’s most important libraries. Its exhibits include ancient parchments, ciphers, and even highly valuable musical scores.
Bergamo Cathedral
The Cathedral’s white, unprepossessing façade contrasts with its splendid and extravagantly decorated interior. It houses an abundance of treasures, one of the most outstanding being Pope John XXIII’s crown, made of gold and studded with pearls, diamonds, rubies and emeralds.
San Vigilio Castle
This fortress is a historic testament to the power wielded for centuries by Bergamo’s rulers. High on a hill, almost 500 metres up, it played a strategic role as a watchtower for the city. Although it now lies in ruins, it is still perfectly possible to make out its towers, cannon placements, embrasures, and the like.
What to see in Lower Bergamo
The Lower Town is the modern part of Bergamo, with wide avenues and twentieth-century buildings. The Porta Nuova district is home to the majority of businesses, shops, trendy restaurants, and bars. Via Roma, also known as Viale Vittorio Emanuele, is the Lower Town’s main thoroughfare. Here you will find a number of interesting buildings, including the Donizetti theatre, the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie and the Torre dei Caduti. However, it is the Accademia Carrara, Bergamo’s most famous museum, that commands the attention of visitors with over 1,800 works of ancient art.
At one end of Via Roma is the railway station, and at the other the funicular that connects Upper and Lower Bergamo. The funicular is used by visitors and locals alike, and is one of the oldest in Italy, having been in operation for over 120 years.
What to eat in Bergamo
You will be spoilt for choice for restaurants in Bergamo. So if you visit the city, don’t leave without trying its famous and delicious cansocelli, the casonsèi dela bergamasca. A stuffed pasta, similar to ravioli, with breadcrumbs, egg, Parmesan, minced meat, sausages, amaretti biscuits (made with an almond paste), pears, raisins, and spices. A gastronomic time bomb, without a doubt, but one that will delight your tastebuds.
Another typical local offering is the polenta allá Bergamasca, a salted flatbread made with maize flour. To be followed by a traditional dessert, the polenta e osei, a cake with chocolate cream, butter, walnuts and rum, topped with marzipan. If it’s a hot day, we recommend you make for the Porta Sant’Alessandro, call into the Marianna cake shop, and order a stracciatella ice cream. Why? Because this is where that particular flavour originated, so don’t hold back: try the original.
How to get to Bergamo
If you can take advantage of the special offers and cheap plane tickets available to Bergamo, there’s good news: the airport is only 6 kilometres from the city centre — a 15-minute drive. There are also buses every 20 minutes, which stop at Bergamo’s bus station, in the Lower Town, the Upper Town, and at the funicular.
If you’re travelling by train, departures are every 20 minutes from Milano Centrale railway station. The express train journey only takes about 48 minutes.
If you’re travelling by car, you simply have to drive the 50 kilometres that separate Bergamo from Milan along the convenient A4 toll motorway.
