Day-trip to Bergamo

One of my day-trip from my first semester of Erasmus was to Bergamo, a city quite close to Milan. I went there by train, and from Milano Centrale (the main train station of Milan), it only takes about 30 minutes to get there: it’s really not so far! If you are spending some time in Milan for an Erasmus, I think going there is a great idea to spend a day outside of Milan, see something new and get some fresher air!

Bergamo is kind of divided in two: the lower part of the city, that is quite modern, and the upper part of the city, which is more ancient. It's this second part of the city, the old one, that we were more interested in visiting, and so as soon as we arrived in Bergamo we looked for a way to get up there. From the train station, all you have to do is walk straight following the main street to get there. It is possible to go up there with the funicular railway, by walking up the stairs or by bus. We chose to go by bus (because the stairs were really high, but we used them to come back down at the end of the day, which is quite easier, if you know what I mean…), and it took us less than 5 minutes, which was great.

I didn't really know what to expect from this city. Before going there, I knew it was not so big and that it was divided in two parts with the modern and the old one. The one that I wanted to see the most was the old part, and just crossing the modern one to get to the ancient part was enough for me. I figured there wouldn't be so many things to do, so I was expecting this day to be about sightseeing, relaxing and having a good time with friends, which I was also really looking forward to (I love those days).

We did not really have a purpose or a special place we wanted to go to, so we just walked around and stopped when we were interested by something. There were a little bit of tourists, but overall the upper part of the city is really quiet: there are almost no cars at all since the streets are so small.

Our first stop was at the main cathedral of Bergamo. Its façade looked beautiful with the colors, and so we decided to go inside. It was huge, with paintings and lights everywhere. I remember one painting in particular which was really huge, that can be found of the right side of the seats, and that I thought that the whole cathedral was really beautiful. I do not have any pictures from the inside, but if you have the chance, get in! It’s free and it’s really worth seeing.

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After our visit of this cathedral, we started looking for a restaurant where we could have lunch. Most of the restaurants were full because it was around 13. 00, and it was harder for us to find a table, since there were 8 of us and we had not made any reservation. After spending some time looking for a place, we didn't find up a restaurant that had a free table, and we all had a pizza, once again.

Then we kept walking around after that and we found what looked like an old castle. We didn’t get inside because we would have had to pay to get in, but we stayed in the park around it because it had a beautiful view over the city. From there we realized that the roofs of the houses were really typical, with that orange-reddish shade, since they almost all had the same! This view was really nice, probably my favorite of the day, I loved it!

We walked some more through the city, in the charming, small and cobbled streets. We ended up finding another viewing point, just in time for sunset. I loved the view we got from there and the light that the sunset put on the houses around us. There again we had a view, but it was more oriented towards behind the city, so we could see mostly fields, a stadium and some planes so we guessed the airport was also close. It was like we had nothing to do but enjoy the sunset, which felt really great.

We then started walking back to the train station (that is located in the lower part of the city) and we decided to go down walking. Before arriving to the stairs there is a long path that offers a view all over the lower part of the town, which is also beautiful. I think it’s also really worth seeing!

To sum up, our day in Bergamo was pleasant: the architecture of the old part of the town is great and the best part is that it’s close to Milan! Actually, I know for a fact that quite a few people live in Bergamo and work in Milan, it's really easy to get from one city to the other with the train. If you ever want to visit it, I think one day is enough to see most of Bergamo!

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