Bergamo Travel Guide: The Upper City Above the Lombard Plain

Bergamo is 45 minutes from Milan by train and one of the most rewarding day trips — or short stays — in Lombardy. The city is divided between the modern lower city (Città Bassa) and the medieval upper city (Città Alta) on a hilltop 350m above the plain. The Città Alta, enclosed by Venetian walls that UNESCO recognised in 2017, is one of the finest intact medieval cityscapes in Italy.

Città Alta

Access the upper city by funicular from Viale Vittorio Emanuele in the lower city (every 12 minutes, €1.40, or included in the Bergamo Card).

Piazza Vecchia is the architectural heart of the Città Alta — Palladian loggia, a medieval tower, a fountain with stone lions, and the Biblioteca Civica Angelo Mai. The square hasn’t changed substantially since the 16th century.

Cappella Colleoni — The funeral chapel of Bartolomeo Colleoni, built in the 1470s by Giovanni Antonio Amadeo. The polychrome marble façade is a masterwork of Lombard Renaissance decoration. Inside: Tiepolo ceiling frescoes, Colleoni’s gilded equestrian statue.

Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore — Romanesque exterior (1137), baroque interior, and the inland tomb of Donizetti (the opera composer was born in Bergamo, 1797).

Accademia Carrara

The Accademia Carrara in the lower city is one of Italy’s most important art museums outside Milan, Rome, and Florence. Lorenzo Lotto, Botticelli, Raphael, Mantegna, Titian. Often under-visited relative to its quality.

Food

Bergamo’s specialty is casoncelli alla bergamasca — stuffed pasta filled with sausage, breadcrumbs, pears, and spices, served with butter, pancetta, and sage. Found in every restaurant in the Città Alta.