It takes you about 20 minutes by car to drive from Lake Iseo to Bergamo. The city, which is located at the foothills of the Bergamo Alps and connects to the Po valley, is worthwhile a visit!

Bergamo has a population of around 120,000 people and has two centres: “Città alta” (upper city), and the “Città bassa” (lower city).

The two parts of the town are connected by cable car, roads, and foot-paths. “La Città alta” is a car-free hilltop medieval town, where all buildings and monuments are under monumental protection and which is surrounded by 16th-century cyclopic defensive walls.

The construction of the Venetian wall started in 1561 and took 27 years to construct. At some parts it reaches a height of 50 meters. As those days the city population grew rapidly and the space within the city-wall was limited, people soon had to look for other places to build their houses and that was why the lower city “Città Bassa” was founded.

You enter the upper city and another world at the same time, through one of four gates: Sant’Agostino, San Giacomo, Sant’Alessandro or San Lorenzo, later renamed into Giuseppe Garibaldi. All four very interesting city gates carry the symbol of the “Serenissima” the winged lion. The upper city has already been used a couple times as movie setting and the many buildings have lovely courtyards and their own fountains. Piazza Vecchia (old square) is the most important square in the upper city. The architect Le Corbusier once called this square, with its medieval town hall, town tower, cathedral (Duomo) and the Romanic Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore (Saint Mary Major) from 1173, one of the most picturesque squares of the world. Annexed to Santa Maria Maggiore is Cappella Colleoni (Colleoni chapel), a masterwork of Renaissance architecture and decorative art. It contains frescos from Tiepolo. In the middle of Piazza Vecchia you can find the Contarini-Fountain, named after a Venetian patrician family. If you need a break from your sight-seeing or shopping, you can enjoy a Cappuccino in one of the numerous authentic cafes surrounding Piazza Vecchia or take a lovely stroll through the car-free streets.

Did you know that the famous Stracciatella ice cream was invented in the Città Alta in 1953 by Enrico Panattoni? Also today you can enjoy the original Stracciatella ice cream in the Pasticceria and Gelateria Marianna in Colle Aperto 4, which is still run by the heirs of the inventor Enrico Panattoni.