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Italy is America’s favourite European getaway when the new winds of summer time start blowing.
A historic nation residence to among the world’s most iconic sights, together with the Colosseum, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and Milan Cathedral, it has sufficient sights and sights to preserve you coming again for extra yr after yr.
However, now that overtourism is again to hang-out Italy, and the nation’s adopting more and more restrictive measures to fight the regarding development, you might be questioning the place in Italy it’s best to go subsequent – ideally, someplace you gained’t want advance booking to enter, nor danger being fined when trying a selfie.
Believe us; it can happen.
This yr, the lesser-known cultural hotspot of Bergamo – and its surrounding provinces – await you:
The Italian Capital Of Culture This Year
Located solely 40 km Northeast of Milan, Bergamo is a small metropolis with a inhabitants of simply over 120,000, boasting unimaginable views of the Orobic Alps, and a wealthy heritage, a lot in order that it’s been named Italy’s Capital of Culture in 2023.
The coveted title, bestowed upon choose cities which have traditionally contributed to the formation of an Italic identification and Italian tradition typically, had beforehand been awarded to different up-and-coming vacationer locations comparable to Procida, a small island off the Bay of Naples and the gorgeous Parma.
This yr, it’s the Bergamo province that takes the crown, alongside its sister metropolis of Brescia, although it’s Bergamo that stands out among the many two as the extra picturesque settlement perched on a hilltop and surrounded by medieval partitions.
An Overlooked Cultural Hotspot
Bergamo has been a cultural vacation spot within the making for some time now.
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Often neglected by guests who journey to the North of Italy to marvel on the architectural grandeur of Milan or spend idyllic weekends at Lake Garda or Como, it receives on common 2 million guests per yr solely.
This could sound like rather a lot, but it surely represents merely a fraction of Italy’s staggering ranges of tourism, which reached an all-time excessive of 64.8 million in 2022.
Fortunately for crowd-wary vacationers nonetheless eager on dwelling out their Italian summer time fantasy, Bergamo’s overtourism charges are method decrease than the Italian common.
Why Is Bergamo Worth Visiting?
Divided into two components – Lower and Upper Bergamo – the town is finest recognized for its ‘upper’ half, or Città Alta, a walled historic core that’s been attracting a rising variety of History buffs and tradition lovers lately.
This is essentially on account of UNESCO’s classification of the Venetian defensive programs of Bergamo as a Heritage Site in July 2017, reaffirming the underrated metropolis’s relevance as a middle of tradition and the humanities, a job it’s undertaken for the reason that Middle Ages.
Upper Bergamo is a fortified citadel the place the perfectly-preserved cobbled alleys are lined by Italy’s well-known pastel-colored facades and an imposing cathedral with an ornate duomo that towers excessive above a central piazza, flanked by alfresco eating spots and different spectacular medieval monuments.
Most guests to Bergamo rapidly tick off the town as a day journey from Milan, however we might strongly suggest spending no less than three days right here savoring your method by and taking within the sights of Bergamo, and the Bergamo Province, that are plentiful.
The Top 7 Things To See In Bergamo
Some of the highest sights embrace:
- The Piazza Vecchia, the Upper Town’s fundamental assembly level and Bergamo’s beating coronary heart
- Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore, a Twelfth-century Romanesque surprise that includes elaborate stucco and vibrant frescoes
- The Colleoni Chapel, a beautifully-decorated mausoleum adjoining to the Basilica
- The Campanone, an Eleventh-century tower rising 43 meters excessive providing a wide ranging panorama of the Bergamasque skyline and the Alps past
- The Porta San Giacomo, one of many Upper Town’s medieval gates, linked to Lower Bergamo through a stone footbridge
- Castello di San Vigilio, a fortified complicated located at Bergamo’s highest level, with eating places and romantic trails distributed alongside the route main as much as its outer partitions
- The Venetian Walls of Bergamo, a UNESCO-protected monument encircling the Upper Town that used to function a safety mechanism towards invaders within the Middle Ages
A World-Class Foodie Destination
Italy is a renowned foodie hotspot, what with its award-winning pasta, freshly-made pizze, smooth gelato, and abundance of contemporary fruit, owing it to a Mediterranean local weather, and Bergamo is not any completely different relating to healthful culinary experiences.
Casoncelli alla bergamasca is Bergamo’s signature dish, and a stuffed pasta hand-sealed and boiled earlier than it’s is served in butter, with grated parmigiano on high.
Other regional delicacies embrace the creamy-textured Taleggio cheese, originating from the namesake valley near Bergamo. According to locals, it has been produced for the reason that Roman period – and naturally, there’s stracciatella.
The creation Bergamo locals appear to be pleased with probably the most. The creamy gelato taste consisting of milk and chocolate bits was first concocted throughout the metropolis’s historical fortifications, and it’s attributed to restaurant proprietor Enrico Panattoni.
It obtained so in style the idea unfold all around the world, however a few of the very best stracciatella can nonetheless be present in Bergamo’s Upper Town.
Straight Out Of A Movie Scene
Lastly, Bergamo has lately served as a filming location for Timothee Chalamet-starred coming-of-age drama Call Me By Your Name.
To the cinephiles on the market, it’s the place the main characters Elio and Oliver escape to on their romantic getaway forward of Oliver’s imminent departure.
There are quite a few different movie-like settings in, and round Bergamo value exploring, together with:
- Brescia, a medium-size metropolis dotted with UNESCO-listed monuments, such because the historic Tower of Pegol
- Crema, a standard Northern Italian city that additionally featured on Call Me By Your Name
- Treviglio, a lesser-known small city solely 12 miles South of Bergamo, finest recognized for its landmark medieval basilica and 14th-century Town Hall
- Lago d’Iseo, a picturesque lake lined with sleepy fishing villages and fairy-tale villas, that always will get skipped by vacationers on their method to Lakes Como or Garda*
*Iseo and Sarnico are two of probably the most lovely cities straddling Lago d’Iseo
Bergamo Is Easy And Cheap To Get To
As Bergamo is just 40 miles North of the mega-hub that’s Milan, getting there couldn’t be simpler. In truth, the regional airport markets itself as Milan-Bergamo (BGY), internet hosting a whole lot of low-cost flights from quite a few Italian and European locations.
Intra-Europe flights to Bergamo Airport could be as low cost as US$10 booked prematurely with finances airways like Ryanair, which use it as a hub.
Arriving in BGY, vacationers can both hop on a Milan or Bergamo-bound shuttle, because the airport serves each cities.
Guests arriving in Milan Linate, or Milan Malpesa, the Lombardian capital’s two major worldwide airports, can journey by bus or practice to Bergamo from central Milan for between US$6 and US$11.00 one-way.
How Long To Stay In Bergamo
As Bergamo is a compact metropolis, and many of the sights are all crammed throughout the defensive partitions of the Upper City, you’ll be able to simply see it in a single day, although we might recommend no less than 3 days within the wider Bergamo province to really take within the environment of the Northern Italian countryside, and go to a neighboring village or two.
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This article initially appeared on TravelOffPath.com
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