Originally the trip to Bergamo was supposed to be a gift by me and my brother for our mum but she got COVID 5 days before the trip was about to take place. We hoped that she would recover within that time but of course luck wasn’t on our side. As we couldn’t cancel the trip me and my brother still had to take the trip. While being a bit sad that our mum couldn’t join we tried to make the best out of it.
Day 1 - Città Bassa#
The airport wasn’t too far from my parents home but since we couldn’t risk to contract COVID right before the trip we decided to sleep at our grandmums place. So we arrived the day before the trip, had some nice German dinner with granny and watched some old German TV show called Ein Herz und eine Seele together before we went to sleep.
Maybe it was because of the Cola that I drank during lunch or maybe it was because of the upcoming flight but I woke up 2 or 3 times during the night. Luckily I wasn’t too tired when I woke up the next day. We got ready and had some breakfast with our grandmum before we took off. We drove to my parents place to drop off some stuff that we didn’t need during our trip. Then we got picked up by a taxi that took us to the airport.
We arrived at the airport and still had an hour before the flight would take off. The flight got delayed by a bit but eventually we got on the plane and we were on the way to Bergamo.
Over an hour later we arrived at the airport in Bergamo. Since we had no checked baggage we could immediately leave the airport and found the right bus to Bergamo’s city center. We took the bus and arrived at the city center around 15 minutes later. From there our Airbnb was just around the corner. Since the hotel was intended to be for the three of us, it was pretty big. We even had two different bathrooms and two bedrooms. Getting in the Airbnb was a bit tricky as we first didn’t know how to even enter the entrance gate without a key. By checking the reply from the host again, we found a video that described how to get the key and in which apartment we had to go.
After we put our suitcase in the apartment we looked up some restaurant to have late lunch. By then it was already past 3 PM so many restaurants were closed. We found a restaurant with good reviews nearby so we walked there. It seemed as if we were the only guests as no one else was there besides the staff. We both ordered pizza and had some beer. They didn’t have neither Lambrusco nor Peroni so we had some Birra Moretti instead.
After the lunch we went to a big nice looking café nearby and had an espresso. The location was very great and around that time there was almost no one. After we paid the waiter, he disappeared for a while and eventually came back with our change.
We then simply walked around and explored the area. The city center was quite compact and had a mix of old buildings and very italian-looking buildings. Bergamo seemed like a very leaned-back town. Maybe because we didn’t go there during the tourist season.
On the way we found a small greek market and bought two beers there that we drank while walking around. By coincidence we walked by our Airbnb again. So we went back to the Airbnb, took a short break and then set off again to get some dinner. By now it had already gotten pretty dark. We wanted to have some pasta so we found some good pasta restaurant not too far away. The ambiance of the restaurant was nice. The self-made pasta was hanging down a bar behind some glass that separated the kitchen from the area where the guests were sitting. What was odd is that the order had to be done on a touch screen that was literally directly besides the counter. I ordered some classic Carbonara and my brother had some pasta with shrimps. The food was fine but not as good as expected.
I was pretty full after the dinner but my brother wanted to have some ice cream. So we walked a bit around in persue of finding a good ice cream shop. On the way we walked by an alley with lights on both sides along it. We decided to take some photos before we moved on.
We moved on and found an ice cream shop. There we got some ice cream and walked around while eating it.
We sat down at a park, talked a while and then went back to the Airbnb. We then watched a movie before we went to bed.
Day 2 - Città Alta#
We got up at 8 AM and got ready to start our day. When I wanted to take a shower after my brother, I wanted to close the window in the bathroom and looked directly at an office room at the building on the other side. I saw an office woman looking directly in my direction. I was a bit embarrassed but quickly closed the window. When I was done showering we went out to buy some food for breakfast.
We wanted to buy some stuff at Carrefour but the building where it was supposed to be was occupied by a clothing store. As it turned out the clothing store was the entrance area of a small shipping mall. The Carrefour was in the basement and we had to walk through the clothing store to get there. We bought some eggs, tomatoes, bacon and water. Next we left the shopping mall and went to a nearby bakery. There we bought some odd looking buns, two croissants and two other pastries. Then we went back to the apartment. There my brother prepared scrambled egg and tomatoes with onion. We had the buns with the bacon and the scrambled egg. Afterwards we had the croissants and then the pastry.
Ready for the day we headed to the tram which goes up the hill to the upper city of Bergamo called Citta Alta. When we arrived at the tram we saw a long queue, all waiting for the tram. We therefore decided to walk up the hill instead, as it was only supposed to be a 10 minutes walk. The walk was very easy and there were hardly any people on the way up.
At the top was a big gate that led into the Citta Alta. We took some photos there and then went inside.
We reached the Piazza Vecchia one of the most famous places with several churches and some restaurants. There we heard a violin player playing the most popular classic violin pieces.
We wanted to go into the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore but the entrance fee was 5 Euro per person. We read that the Cappella Colleoni to its right was more magnificent as it was built later and had no entrance fee so we visited it instead.
Finally we went into the Duomo di Bergamo. It was a big church with many nice paintings and impressive embellishments all around. Someone was playing some foreboding songs on the organ.
We then left Piazza Vecchia and walked along the small crowded alleys. There were many restaurants and bakeries. We walked into a souvenirs shop and bought some gifts for our mum. By now it was around 2 PM so we we were looking for somewhere to eat. My brother had picked a restaurant with good reviews. The restaurant had a nice presentation so we went inside. We had some beer and chose the local ravioli which were a delicacy in the region. When the ravioli came the portion size was relatively small. We didn’t order anything in addition as we opted for a bigger dinner instead. All in all the food was good but could have been more.
We walked along the main road. Some stairs lead to a smaller church, we went in there and looked around. Next we continued on walking along the main road and arrived at another plaza. There we sat in a gated area with some sunshades and had an espresso. We then walked back to the Piazza Vecchia to climb up the Campanone tower. The tickets also included the museum that was at the base of the tower. The view from the tower was great. We were even able to see the beginning of the Alps in the distance.
We took the elevator down the tower and walked into the museum. It wasn’t that interesting especially because the audio was in Italian only. We then left the museum and got some Cannolo and I also got a local delicacy called Polenta E Osei. Osei translates to bird which explains why there was a dead chocolate bird on top of the dessert.
We ate the sweets at the entrance of some building. We were curious what was in the building so we went inside. It turned out to be an old library. We had to put our bags in a locker before being able to enter the library. Some people were actually studying there, surrounded by old books. There was a smaller room where (probably) even older books were secured behind glass.
Besides that there wasn’t much more of interest so we left the library. We walked through the main road once more and got each of us an Aperol Spritz to go. We then turned around and walked to the last attraction for the day namely the Bergamo Castle. A garden surrounded the area. In the garden were several big guns that had been used in the second World War as well as some memorials of fallen soldiers. We next wanted to walk up the tower. To our surprise there was almost no one. We walked up the old stairs to reach the tower. The view from the tower was great.
We then decided to go back to the Airbnb. This time we were able to take the Funicolare (the tram) back down to the lower city. The view wasn’t as interesting as expected. We arrived at the Airbnb and relaxed a bit. Then we went out again to find some restaurant to have dinner. We walked around some area with multiple restaurants and it took us a while until we’ve found a nice authentic looking restaurant a bit further out. There we shared a pizza as a first course and had some pasta each as our second course.
The food was good but nothing special. We had a limoncello for digesting and also had a dessert. However the dessert was basically just sugar. We payed and walked back home, we watched a movie and then fell into bed.
Day 3 - Milan#
We woke up half an hour earlier than the day before. While I took a shower my brother went out to buy some buns and pastry. We then had a similar breakfast as the day before. Today we planned to visit Milan as it wasn’t that far away from Bergamo.
We left the Airbnb and then went to the train station. Here the vending machines didn’t seem to work so we had to buy tickets in a small kiosk that was inside the train station. We bought two tickets to Milan and could already enter the train as it arrived early. Around 50 minutes later we arrived in Milan. The train station was a head train station and it was very crowded when we were heading to the exit. From there we went to the metro and bought two day tickets for the public transportation. We then took the metro line to the center. When we left the metro station we could immediately see the big impressive Duomo di Milano. Many people were on the plaza in front of the dome and took photos. The the left of the dome was the famous shopping center Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. It’s very high corridors were really impressive.
We decided to walk around some smaller streets. We found a museum on Leonardo da Vinci. That’s at least what we thought. But it turned out to be some natural history museum with an exhibition of a few of Leonardo’s works. So we left the museum again. We continued north and arrived at the Colonne di San Lorenzo with a small plaza with a row of old columns in front of it. By then we were a bit hungry so we sat down at a café nearby. The waiter just brought us two wine cards when we asked for the menu so I had to ask him again for another menu. We got some croissants with salty filling. When we were done I asked another waitress for the bill. Instead of her a third colleague brought us the bill. The waiter was happily surprised to get tipped by me. We afterwards read that tipping culture is not as common as in Germany and is mostly done in bigger restaurants.
We left and passed by some shopping street. My brother saw some nice long sleeve in the window of a clothing store so we walked inside. However apart from that long sleeve weren’t many other interesting clothes. As we continued on walking north we passed by a catholic university with students sitting in a park and we’re reading or talking with each other. Just a little bit further was the chapel Santa Maria della Grazie where Leonardo da Vinci had painted the last supper on it’s inner walls. However without having booked a guided tour days ahead it was impossible to get in there today.
We walked further to the north west and arrived at a park. On one end of the park was a grandstand with a view on a triumph arc called Arco della Pace. A singer and a classical guitar player were performing some beautiful jazz reinterpretations of popular songs just between the arc and the grandstand. We set there for a while and enjoyed the nice atmosphere.
We then walked on the other side of the park where an old castle, the Castello Sforzesco, was located. We walked through the castle area without entering the rooms of the castle as we would had to buy tickets then.
From here it wasn’t far from Brera which was an artist suburb and had some pasta and beer there. The portions were small but we’ve already expected that since they offered two course meals. We then walked around in this area and also visited the Orto Botanico di Brera botanical garden. The garden was nice but fairly small compared to the one we have in Münster.
As it got late we decided to return to the central plaza with the dome. We walked around the dome to see it from all sides. Then we decided to take the bus to Naviglio, a popular place right next to a small river. Naviglio is a famous spot for drinks and dinner. We walked up and down the river. We first had some drinks at a place that mostly played music from the 90s and early 2000s. After that we headed to a restaurant at the other side of the river. The pizza at the restaurant was the best one we had so far. We also had some rosé wine and water.
As it was late by then we hastily took a bus that was supposedly going to the main trainstation. We found that by switching to the metro we could arrive earlier at the main train station. While being on the metro we bought the train tickets back to Bergamo online.
When we arrived at the train station there was no information on which platform our train would arrive so we had to wait a bit. The train arrived and we could finally board it. A stop later a group of junior high-school students entered the train. It was quite loud especially since some guy behind us was talking very loud on the phone. We were very happy to leave the train once we arrived in Bergamo. Before we went back to our Airbnb we walked into the Irish pub that was directly beside our Airbnb and had some last beer before going back. We watched a movie and went to bed.
Day 4 - San Vigilio Castle#
We also had breakfast on the last day. My brother went to buy buns and some bacon while I started packing the luggage.
My bro told me there seemed to be some construction going on nearby our Airbnb. We made sure we had everything and then checked out. We walked to the bus station and put our suitcase into a locker. We then bought a ticket for the public transportation and a ticket for the airport bus. We wanted to take the bus to Citta Alta since our flight was at 7:20 PM. We realized that there was no construction but rather some preparation for a bike event that would end in Bergamo.
The streets were therefore blocked off for the event and we therefore couldn’t take a bus to Citta Alta. We therefore walked to Citta Alta once more. The queue for the Funicolare was even longer compared to our second day so we walked up again. We walked through Citta Alta and took another Funicolare way up the San Vigilio Castle.
The view on San Vigilio Castle was great but we didn’t have that much time to enjoy it. The ticket we bought could be used for free within 75 minutes after invalidating it. So after walking around for a bit we took the Funicolare back down to Citta Alta again. I bought some souvenirs and we had some stracciatella ice cream which apparently originated from Bergamo.
We walked around some more and then sat down at the Piazza Vecchia and looked for a cheap restaurant. A guy with a harp was playing some questional music on repeat. We found an inconspicuous small alley with an entry to a restaurant. However it lead into a partially hidden garden with chairs.
We ordered a two stage lunch this time. The first dish arrived pretty quick, however the second dish took quite a while to arrive.
During the time of waiting several birds walked on some unoccupied tables and ate the left over pieces and bread crumps. I took a short video of some doves dust bathing on the ground of the outdoor area.
After eating the second dish we were in a rush to the airport. We tried to avoid the crowd of people in the lower city. At that time there were many more people already awaiting the bikers. Therefore we tried to walk around that main road.
We arrived at the bus station, took our luggage and then took the bus to the airport. The security check was fairly fast so we had some time to walk around the shops. We eventually sat down at the floor and listened to some guy trying to play the piano. Despite playing the pieces slow and cautiously it seemed that he knew quite a lot of different pieces. I found it charming that he was trying to play the pieces in this public space even though he still seemed to be a beginner.
My brother realized that people were already queueing so we also started to queue. We took off with a few minutes delay. The plane flight was quite smooth. I was reading Atomic Habits. Over an hour later we already started to land. We got welcomed by our dad and our dog. We drove home and then slept early.
Thoughts#
In retrospective it was a fun trip. We did quite a lot in this short time but still had some time to relax in between. The time frame we picked was great as there weren’t too many tourists at the scenic spots that we had visited. The weather was also pretty good, it was still a bit warm and mostly nice. I can definitely recommend visiting Bergamo and would like to go there again one day.