Bergamo Tourism and Travel

travelcycling

Aug 10

Bergamo is definitely an underrated city with a very interesting layout, a good amount of things to do and easy train access to Milan and Como. Perfect city to experience Italy without bankrupting yourself.

Had a pretty ghetto airbnb in a gated/castle type building with lots of other units. Italy so far has felt like a vert 2nd world/poorer country with all the buildings worn and old and the interiors varying degrees of renovated or air conditioned. Part of it seems to be power grid problems as a few people have warned me to not run too many things at once.
This place was kind of dirty which happens in cheap Airbnbs that the worst kinds of people rent and then trash. The host was telling me he was having to clean up some Irish douchebag’s beerfest mess with broken bottles in another unit. Good incentive to make your Airbnb appear nice so you can charge more.

new bathroom but then gross kitchen

loft construction with sketchy stairs

One of the plazas

One of the main roman gates to the old city

Another ancient city gate

Abandoned monastery

There's a funicular to get you up to the old city

It was completely packed but I was lazy

Accademia Carrara

A solid art museum/Academy. Bit pricy for the quantity of works. As typical with most of these, it takes you from the 15th to the 19th century and features a diverse range of Italian painters and is certified 60% Jesuses in all his forms. Really a shame that 90% of the 14th-15th century artworks in Italy is Christian stuff.

19th century marbles always impressive

Chef boyardee on medal

There's a lot about medals in this museum

Interesting 3D relief on this

Religious trinkets ( I call these )

Looks like a 1970s album cover

13th century Jesus from a church

You can see the progression of the quality

Great marble with interesting expression

This is one of their famous works they put on postcards

An interesting moment in fashion history here

19th century painting vs bust of same guy

Then we get to the good era again, the 1800s

Interesting and diverse subjects all masterfully painted

Expressionism from a distance mimics the focal blur of cameras

In the basement, some trash modern art exhibit

Inkjet prints of photos that a guy took. Awful.

Civic Tower Campanone

Located in the core of the old city, the main point of the tower is so you get up it and have a good view of the city. It has a bizarre interactive museum about the history of Bergamo and cooking? I have no idea everything was in Italian and it just played random videos. YOU’RE TRYING TOO HARD MAN.

Some of the roman constructions under the tower

Isn't this awful? Just a bunch of panels with videos playing on it in chaotic ways?

Definitely not a fan of any of these interactive/video type displays in museums

What you actually pay for: View of the entire city. It looks very Roman to this day

The Basilica right next door

It's interesting to see all the red roofs extend for miles around with seemingly now new constructions

A lot of these Italian cities look about the same today as on the 16th-17th century paintings in the museums

Basilica Di Santa Maggiore

The main cathedral of Bergamo and probably the best tourist attraction. This place is just bonkers, I can’t imagine what the ones in Venice or Milan look like in person if you’re willing to shell out 30-40$ to enter and skip the line…

It's really unassuming from the outside and somewhat jammed between other buildings in the plazza

But then you get inside and the layout somehow makes it looks twice as large

Painted in Baroque style, not one square inch left undecorated

Everything is meticulously crafted / embellished

These cathedrals are definitely worth visiting, no Museum holds a candle to them

Everywhere you look you will see goofy little angels and demons and whatever random beasts

What is going on here for instance?

You just have to go in person because pictures and photos can't do these things justice

The church organ

The main Christ effigy at the center of the cathedral

I can't imagine the cost of building something like this and how much better people's lives could have been...

Civic Archeological Museum

The archeological museum and natural history museum are right next to each other. You can probably skip them depending on how many other similar museums you’ve done… They are sort of all the same.

Starts with neolithic. Spearheads, stone tools, arrowheads, fish hooks etc.

Scythe with imbedded silex. Interesting that ancient blades were just a bunch of stone teeth

Then you move to the bronze and copper age... Tons and tons of these

Nice that they have reconstruction of how the axe heads would be fit onto wooden handles

Then coins...

Then your roman era stuff. They have a good amount in Bergamo

Lots of headstones have survived the ages, maybe people didn't tend to destroy these as much?

The lettering was on point

They have a few well preserved statues which seems rare

Damn those Roman really had it made eh

Section more specific to Lombardy and the post-roman history

These are the people who'd harass the Romans and eventually established kingdoms in Lombardia

Lot of 7-8th century stuff here

They have a small egypt section.

With an actual mummy that was donated to them from one of the 19th century looters

Er wait not looters, I mean "explorers" yes

Civic Museum of Natural Sciences

Nothing too special here, just a good typical Natural History museum with an extensive collection of stuffed animals found in Italy and Europe at large.

Good place to bring the kids but probably not exactly worth visiting if you’re wanting to experience Italy…

Crazy this is 250 years old

Main striking display at the entrance

They really made him look goofy though

Dodo bird reconstruction

Voyager pigeon, now extinct after people ate tens of millions of them

Prehistoric.... things

They have a large sealife section to, half the models are just plastic though

Reptiles all there as well

Vast collection of all the birds

Some not found here, just flexing that they have them

Large flightless birds

They've got most mammals and a huge section of antelopes. Even apes/monkeys

Plus this guy

Their collection is truly impressive but I can't tell which are just fake/plastic with hair put on top

They have ONE dinosaur and lots of smaller fossils

Reproduction of the first dinosaur fossil found in Italy

Sperm whale skeleton

There's an awkward Africa section where you have to look through holes

It's some kind of post-modern curating idea about "respecting the artifacts" or whatever nonsense

Basically they just warn you that this stuff looks goofy but "it's not their fault these are out of context". Whatever

Italian guy who explored North America

Size comparison with the largest ape known to man! Sweet

I had a nice time visiting the city, you can easily do it in a day. Lots of walking along the cobbles and going up and down the ancient layers of walls.
Next up: One day in Milan

All the links to the Italian Trip:

Travel & Mestre Cycling

Venice - Tourism

Bassano Del Grappa - Cycling

Bassano Del Grappa - Tourism

Louis Fernet-Leclair