Bergamo Day Trip

Bergamo is one of the most rewarding day trips from Milan, and many visitors who arrive at its airport never see the city itself. It is really two towns: Città Bassa, the lower town, with elegant nineteenth-century avenues and shops, and Città Alta, the upper town, a beautifully preserved medieval and Renaissance hilltop city enclosed by Venetian walls. Trains from Milano Centrale and Porta Garibaldi reach Bergamo in under an hour, making it an easy and very different day out.

The Venetian walls

From the fifteenth century until 1797, Bergamo belonged to the Republic of Venice, and the Venetians built massive walls around the upper town in the sixteenth century to defend the western edge of their territory. The walls, with their bastions and monumental gates such as Porta San Giacomo, run for several kilometres and were added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 2017. The walk along the tree-lined top of the walls offers wide views over the plain below and the mountains behind.

The funicular

The most enjoyable way up to Città Alta is the funicular, which opened in 1887 and climbs from Viale Vittorio Emanuele in the lower town to the Mercato delle Scarpe square in the upper town. From the station in Bergamo Bassa, a local bus connects with the funicular. A second funicular continues higher from Città Alta to San Vigilio, a hilltop with a ruined castle and even broader views.

Piazza Vecchia

At the heart of the upper town lies Piazza Vecchia, one of the most beautiful squares in northern Italy. It is surrounded by the Palazzo della Ragione, with its arcade and a stone lion of Saint Mark, the symbol of Venice, the white Contarini fountain and the Campanone, the civic tower, whose bell still rings a hundred times every evening, a reminder of the old curfew when the city gates were closed.

Cappella Colleoni and Santa Maria Maggiore

Just behind Piazza Vecchia, the Cappella Colleoni is a masterpiece of Lombard Renaissance architecture, built in the 1470s as the burial chapel of the mercenary commander Bartolomeo Colleoni. Its façade of coloured marble, with reliefs and statues, is dazzling. Beside it, the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore has a modest exterior and a lavish Baroque interior, with Flemish tapestries, an inlaid wooden choir and the tomb of Gaetano Donizetti, the composer born in Bergamo.

Lanes and food

The main street of Città Alta, made up of Via Gombito and Via Colleoni, is lined with bakeries, delicatessens and restaurants. Bergamo's specialities include casoncelli, stuffed pasta with butter, sage and pancetta, and polenta in many forms. The famous sweet polenta e osei, a yellow cake shaped like polenta and decorated with marzipan birds, fills the windows of pastry shops. Local cheeses such as taleggio and strachitunt make excellent picnic food.

Try a local pause

A café stop in Città Alta gives the walk a natural break and a chance to sample local flavours. We leave enough time to return downhill and reach the station without rushing, especially in the evening, when the funicular can be busy.

Città Bassa

The lower town deserves time too. The Accademia Carrara, one of Italy's finest picture galleries, holds works by Raphael, Botticelli, Mantegna, Bellini and the Bergamo-born painter Giovan Battista Moroni, famous for his portraits. Nearby, the Sentierone, a broad tree-lined promenade, is the place for an evening passeggiata among elegant cafés and the Donizetti theatre.

Our view

Bergamo is a wonderful contrast to Milan: smaller, quieter and full of medieval character. We take an early train, ride the funicular up, explore Piazza Vecchia and the chapels, walk the walls and have lunch in the upper town. For other day trips, our Lake Como guide and Pavia guide offer different landscapes. Arriving through Orio al Serio airport, our airports and arrival guide explains how to reach both cities, and our three-day itinerary shows how a day trip fits into a longer stay.