Bergamo, Italy 🇮🇹 4K Walking Tour - May 2024

Bergamo Alta, also known as "Upper Town," is a medieval city surrounded by walls built in the 16th century during Venetian rule. These walls were added to existing fortifications to make the city almost impregnable.

The main square in Bergamo Alta is Piazza Vecchia, with the Contarini fountain and historic buildings like the Palazzo della Ragione and the Civic Tower (called the Campanone), which still rings more than 100 times at 10:00 PM – a tradition from the past to signal the nightly closing of the Venetian gates. Across from the Palazzo della Ragione stands the imposing Palazzo Nuovo, home to the Angelo Mai Civic Library.

Through the Palazzo della Ragione, you can access the Cathedral of Sant'Alessandro, the Colleoni Chapel designed by Giovanni Antonio Amadeo with the funerary monuments of Bartolomeo Colleoni and his daughter Medea, the Baptistery by Giovanni da Campione, and the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore with its beautiful side portals, also by Giovanni da Campione. Inside Santa Maria Maggiore, you can admire inlaid wood depicting biblical scenes, mainly by Lorenzo Lotto, and a grand Baroque confessional carved by Andrea Fantoni. The church also houses the tomb of the famous composer Gaetano Donizetti, born in Bergamo in 1797.

Via Colleoni, also known as Corsaröla, is the main street connecting Piazza Vecchia to Piazza della Cittadella, serving as the heart of Upper Town. In Piazza della Cittadella, you'll find the Civic Archaeological Museum and the "Enrico Caffi" Museum of Natural Sciences, with the Fontana del Lantro nearby, next to the Church of San Lorenzo. Among other notable religious buildings is the Church of San Michele al Pozzo Bianco, featuring frescoes depicting scenes from the life of Mary by Lorenzo Lotto (1525).

Upper Town is not only home to the Lorenzo Rota Botanical Garden on via Colle Aperto but also hosts the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures at the University of Bergamo.

To reach Upper Town, you can climb up the "scorlazzini" (stairs connecting it to the lower part of the city), drive (though it's prohibited on summer weekends and every Sunday afternoon throughout the year), take the funicular, or hop on a bus.