Dining with Donizetti, Tasso and Pope John XXIII: a Weekend in Bergamo – Part I

A hundred chimes of the bell of the civic tower that at ten in the evening announce the closing of the gates of the Venetian walls: it looks like a scene from a costume film, but these are emotions we can all experience by visiting Bergamo. Although today, with no enemy attack to fear, the gates obviously stay open, for the rest, in the Città Alta the atmospheres are those of centuries ago. Indeed, Bergamo is one of the five Italian cities whose historic centre has remained completely surrounded by walls, which have kept their appearance almost unchanged over the centuries. Foreign tourists who crowd the upper centre often believe that the place name of the city, known in Roman times as Bergomum, derives from the Germanic "berg", meaning "mountain", a hypothesis not supported by research, however.

We reach the Città Alta by the funicular which, from the Città Bassa, the modern one, takes us, to the delight of the women in the group, straight into piazza Mercato delle Scarpe. From there we walk along one of the alleys that wind upwards to reach the Rocca, built from 1331 on the hill of Sant'Eufemia. We discover that it was further fortified by the Visconti to counter Venice, which would anyway succeed them in ruling the city in 1428. Today, instead, it is tourists' gaze that can command the city; indeed, from a wide terrace we can contemplate a breathtaking panorama, with all of Bergamo's towers rising above the houses of the historic quarter, over which the hills of the Orobie foothills are also clearly visible. A place that enchants and also inspires artists, the first among them the illustrious composer Gaetano Donizetti, born in Bergamo in 1797.

Torquato Tasso, on the other hand, dedicated a beautiful sonnet to the city, praising its natural beauties.

From the Rocca we descend back into the heart of the Città Alta, reaching Piazza Vecchia, dominated by the Torre Civica, where several splendid palaces stand, including the Palazzo della Ragione. On the south side of the square, you are left open-mouthed: wherever you look, you see an architectural masterpiece of rare beauty. The Duomo, dedicated to the city's patron, Sant'Alessandro, was built from 1459 on the site of a previous religious building, itself erected on the remains of an early Christian church. Not far away stands the splendid Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, which, besides numerous important works of art, also preserves Donizetti's tomb. Adjoining the basilica is the Renaissance Cappella Colleoni, and a few steps away the 14th-century Baptistery, originally placed in the central nave of the basilica.