Understand
Bergamo is a pretty town of some 120,000 people nestling in the foothills of the Alps. Widely acclaimed as a city of rare beauty, Bergamo is famous for its wealth of artistic treasures and enchanting medieval atmosphere. It is a real life tale of two cities: “Città Bassa”, the busy and modern lower city, and "Città Alta", the upper city with its rich heritage of art and history.
Get in
By plane
Bergamo is the location of the Orio al Serio International Airport (BGY) (Phone number: +39035326323), an airport oriented around low-cost airlines. Buses to the city are € 1.25 per trip. You can find schedules and route maps on the site of the local mass transit authority. Cabs will take about 15mins and cost around €15.
Note that busses can be both unreliable and not punctual. As of 2006 June the airport is being partly rebuilt and this leads to delays of around 10 minutes for those that are picking up or returning hire cars due to the wait for the hire car shuttle bus.
By train
Regular trains to Milan, Lecco and Brescia, on to Verona and Venice. You can check schedules and fares on the website of the Italian Railways. There is no left luggage office at the train station only at the airport.
By bus
Regular buses to Milan. You can check schedules and fares on the website of Autostradale. The trip takes approximately one hour, depending on traffic conditions.
Get around
The town is not large, and most of the sights can be seen comfortably on foot. To get from the CittĂ Bassa up to the CittĂ Alta can be quite tiring on foot, though, due to the steep and winding streets, but there is a funicolare (a kind of tram) linking the two parts of the town. You can see a map of bus routes, schedules and fares on the website of the local mass transit authority (in Italian).
See
Do
Eat
For snacks, a drink or simply the great view, Cafe Funicolare in the city Alta Funicolare station. Lunch or an evening meal try "Da Franco Ristorante Pizzeria
Via Colleoni 8 Bergamo Alta Telefono 035238565" or "Da Mimmo http://www.ristorantemimmo.com/ "
, both more than a Pizzeria.
La Bruschetta, in the Citta Bassa, just off Colle Aperto is a good value restaurant/pizzeria in the cellar of a building and worth a mention.
Drink
Get out
Other places of interest around Bergamo
Bergamo (Bèrghem in Lombard) is a town in Lombardy, Italy, about 40km northeast of Milan. The commune is home to c. 117,000 inhabitants. It is served by the Orio al Serio International Airport, which also serves the Province of Bergamo, and to a lesser extent Milan. The foothills of the Alps begin immediately north of the town.
History
Bergamo occupies the site of the ancient town of Bergomum, founded as a settlement of the Celtic tribe of Cenomani. In 49 BC it became a Roman municipality, counting c. 10,000 inhabitants at its peak. An important hub on the military road between Friuli and Raetia, it was destroyed by Attila in the 5th century.
From the 6th century Bergamo was the seat of one of the most important Lombard duchies of northern Italy, together with Brescia, Trento and Cividale del Friuli: its first Lombard duke was Wallaris. After the conquest by Charlemagne of the Lombard Kingdom, it became the seat of a county under one Auteramus (died 816).
From the 11th century onwards Bergamo it was an independent commune, taking part to the Lombard League which defeated Frederick I Barbarossa in 1165. Caught in the bitter fights between Guelphs and Ghibellines, led in the city by the Colleoni and the Suardi respectively, from 1264 Bergamo was intermittently under the rule of Milan. In 1331 it gave itself to John of Bohemia, but later the Visconti of Milan reconquered it. After a short conquest by the Malatesta in 1407, in 1428 it fell under the control of the Venetian, remaining part of it until 1797. Notably, the Venetians fortified the higher portion of the town (see Main sights section).
In 1815 it was assigned to Austria. Giuseppe Garibaldi freed it 1859, and thenceforth Bergamo was part of the Kingdom of Italy.
Bergamo is the traditional birthplace of Arlecchino and Brighella, two popular characters of the commedia dell'arte,
Bergamo has a prominent place in music history. The large Romanesque church of Santa Maria Maggiore, begun in 1137, had a continuous and well-documented tradition of music teaching and singing for more than eight hundred years. Since the town was under Venetian control, the musical style of the Venetians was imported as well; in particular, a large instrumental ensemble grew up to support the choral singing. Composers such as Gasparo Alberti produced polychoral music with two organs, brass and viols, a style usually associated with Venice, but which flourished in the fine acoustical environment of Santa Maria Maggiore.
Prominent musicians born in Bergamo include Gaetano Donizetti, Pietro Locatelli, Antonio Lolli, and Gianluigi Trovesi. Alessandro Grandi, one of the most progressive composers of the early 17th century after Monteverdi, was maestro di cappella there until his death in the plague of 1630; Tarquinio Merula, an even more progressive composer, and one of the founders of the early sonata, took over his post.
A famous musician who lived in Bergamo was maestro Gianandrea Gavazzeni.
Bergamo was the hometown and last resting place of Enrico Rastelli, a highly technical and world famous juggler who lived in this town and, in 1931, died here at the early age of 34 years. There is a life-sized statue to Rastelli within his mausoleum.
Main sights
The town has two centres: "CittĂ alta" (upper city), a hilltop medieval town, surrounded by 17th century cyclopic defensive walls, and the "CittĂ bassa" (lower city). The two parts of the town are connected by either by funicular/cable car and roads, however parking spaces are very limited in the 'upper town' and the traffic is blocked on most Sundays.
CittĂ alta
The upper city, surrounded by Venetian walls built in the 17th century, serves as the historic centre of Bergamo.
It includes numerous historical monuments:
The cittĂ alta is also home to two museums, the Museo Civico Archeologico (Archaeological Civic Museum) and the Museo di scienze naturali Caffi (Caffi Natural Science Museum).
CittĂ bassa
The lower city, having expanded rapidly during the 20th century, is the modern centre of Bergamo.
Of artistic relevance are the Pinacoteca dell'Accademia Carrara (picture museum of Carrara academy), known as "Accademia Carrara" and the nearby Galleria d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea (gallery of modern and contemporary art), known as GAMEC.
The lower part of the city is divided into many boroughs: Colognola, Valtesse, Redona, Borgo Palazzo, Celadina.
Miscellaneous
Gallery
Image:20032212.jpg|Old town, Bergamo
Image:19 Bergamo.jpg|View of Bergamo
Image:Ragione1.JPG|Palazzo della Ragione
Image:Bergamo Notturno Porta San Giacomo.jpg|Porta San Giacomo
Sister cities
External links
