E6: Bergamo 21st April

We ventured into the ‘big city’ today….. well to be honest, the ‘little city’.  Bergamo consists of Città Bassa, the modern city centre on the plain, and Città Alta, the original medieval city clinging onto the rocky slopes 100 metres above.  This was the one we were interested in.

We parked the van in the camping car Sosta in Stezzano, a little town about 5 kilometres to the South of Bergamo.  

Then we got our faithful Brompton folding bikes out and cycled into Bergamo……… 20 minutes later and we were in Città Bassa and ready to climb (walk) up the hill to the old city.  Città Alta is a walled city and the Venetians lived here for over 350 years, their legacy being the gated walls and the houses and palaces with fancy Gothic windows and adoring facades.

I should add that the streets in Città Alta are so narrow and winding with very high buildings that it was difficult to fully capture the essence of the city in photographs.  What follows was ‘whittled down' from over 150 attempts!

 

One of the ‘gates’, the Porta San Giacomo which was out first view of the old city as we climbed the hill

One of the many narrow cobbled streets….

Looking across Piazza Vecchia to the Venetian Gothic Palazzo della Ragione

Piazza del Duomo is entered through the arcades on the left, the white building is the Duomo with it’s 1886 facade

Inside the Duomo

and looking up to the ceiling…..

 

The Duomo plays second fiddle to these two buildings below, the ‘smaller looking’ entrance on the left is the Santa Maria Maggiore, one of Lombardy’s finest Romanesque churches and adjacent is the Copella Colleoni chapel which appears bigger but is actually one room inside (photo’s were not allowed)

The inside of the church is one of the most extravagantly decorated we have yet seen anywhere in Europe….

It really is breath taking!

This is the Baptistry which was actually removed from the inside of the church when christenings were transferred to the Duomo in the 17th century!

A view of some of the lovely villas on the hillside just outside the Città Alta

Lastly, and away from all that ancient culture, this is for my son Lewis…… he knows!