Hobo in Paris

Bergamo: two cities for the price of one

Outbound Train

Bergamo: two cities for the price of one.

Bergamo is a small town in the foothills of the Italian Alps that is famous for its country cuisine. It also apparently serves as a good base for winter Alpine sports trips. The locals have their own distinctive cuisine and dialect.

Bergamo is actually two towns, an upper town (città alta) and a lower town (città bassa). The città alta is exactly that, a high town, built up in a walled city that has spectacular views of the Alps and the Lombardy region. This is where you will spend most of your time. Try to get a hotel here, even though they are few and far between. We stayed at the Hotel Sole, just beside the main square, the Piazza Vecchia. It’s not expensive, particularly for such a great location, and it has a decent pizzeria on the ground level.

People refer to the città bassa as "modern", but it's just as old as the città alta. By “modern”, they mean that it has wide avenues, stoplights, news kiosks and all of the other trappings of modern daily life, but the città bassa is still, underneath all of that, a beautiful old city. So you still get some really good Italian architecture here, as well. Down here is the train station and shopping district.

The città alta is romantic, picturesque Bergamo. Narrow and nameless cobblestone streets that don’t go in a straight line and suddenly turn into stairs are perfect for a weekend of mapless meandering. The buildings are slightly falling apart, with former layers of bricks or a different-colored stucco peaking through. They are bathed in refreshing sunlight, very much like those in Sienna.

Bergamo was once ruled by Venice and so you can see the lion of St. Mark everywhere. There are also influences in the architecture, decorations and food of Bergamo.

In the Piazza Vecchia is the Contarini fountain that is actually pumping up spring water, so don’t be shocked if you see locals leaning over for a cool drink. It’s potable and healthy. At one end of the square is the white library; this is where you can sit and eat pizza for lunch, watching the crowds go by.

At the other end of the square is the church of Santa Maria Maggiore and its octagonal baptistry. Like many other duomi and churches in Italy, these are built with white and pink marble set in layers and carved into bas-reliefs. The baptistry, built in 1340 and covered with angels, is small, but beautiful. The church’s walls are draped in tapestries and the domed ceilings are covered in brightly-colored frescos.

Another place to visit in the città alta is the Parco delle Rimembranze, or park of remembrance, which serves as a memorial to fallen Italian soldiers. This opposing view of world history was completely foreign to us; i.e., it remembers fallen Italian soldiers from the Axis side of WWII. But I mention this park not so much for its memorials, but for its views—the park is actually higher than the rest of the città alta and allows you to look down on it, the città bassa and the rest of the countryside.

Now let’s get down to business and talk about food. Bergamo is famous for a lot of different types of food—its salami (made with wine and garlic), porcini mushrooms, polenta, local wine (Moscato Passito di Scanzo), Strachitund cheese and casoncelli alla bergamasca ravioli. The città alta is also famous for a special dessert called polenta e osei that commemorates the migratory birds that come through the town. Made to resemble polenta, it is, thankfully, not made from polenta. It’s made with an almond-paste sponge bread and the bird is made from chocolate. Warning: after living in Paris, you probably won’t be happy with the pastries and breads of Bergamo, so stick to the ravioli and polenta.

One great place to try most of the local cuisine is a restaurant tucked off the main shopping street in the città bassa called Ciccio Passami L’Olio. In this Venetian tavern, you can get a Bergamo menu that has polenta taragna (polenta with melted butter and cheese), salami, casoncelli alla bergamasca ravioli, polenta with sausage, wine, and coffee. The portions are so large, I’ll bet you can’t finish it.

How to get there? There are cheap daily flights to Bergamo from Paris on, you guessed it, the official hobo airline, Ryanair.

How to get around? Unlike in Paris, where a tourist day pass on public transportation is not such a good deal, in Bergamo it will actually save you money. For €2.50, buy a day pass that you can use on the buses and the two funiculars that carry you between the città alta and the città bassa.

How to find my favorite restaurant, Ciccio Passami L’Olio? It’s in the città bassa at via S. Alessandro 24/A. At the end of the main shopping street, take a right and it’s up on your left, through a covered walkway.