Bergamo Cycling
Moving from Verona to Bergamo where I’m staying 9 days! I didn’t know much about this city and it’s not really on anyone’s bucket list. There’s no epic world famous climbs nearby and no tourist hotspots. I picked it because it’s close to some mountains, easy enough to access by public transit, decently sized and pretty cheap.
All things considered around 500$ cheaper per week than staying in Badia. For a cycling vacation it’s a great place to be, especially because you can’t always count on the weather to cooperate like in Badia. If it had rained there we’d have nothing to do all day. In Bergamo you can visit a lot of things and worst case take a train to Milan.
Passo Zembla loop
Made a lot of ride plans before leaving but just didn’t use those routes as the Dolomites taught me I can tolerate a full week of huge rides with lots of climbs. So I mapped rides in the mountains and ditched the ones I had planned in the south that went around cities like Brescia and Milan. Riding near Bassano and Mestre taught me that those flat, oven rides with bad roads in industrial areas are really garbage.
More Hills
Back after 2 days off, one because of rain and the other because of Garmin/ Mechanical problems. Big ride up the highest peak I found near the city, with rain threatening all day long. I just came to not trust the weather forecast at all as the previous day it was supposed to rain the whole time and it was bone dry. Same story today, no rain until the night.
Added an extra 400m of climbing here because the boneheads in charge of construction blocked off the road halfway down the pass and sent people back up on a detour road. Not fun when you have dark clouds gathering above your head and you’re still 50km from done. But in the end it worked out as it was heavy downpour the next day in the entire region so I just took it as an errands/visit day to finally catch up on bike maintenance, shopping and this blog thing.
Lake Iseo + Climb
Better ride than Lake Garda! 600m climb is optional but worth the views. You can take a ferry to the Monte Isola in the center but only on weekdays for bikes. Cars are never allowed on the Island.
Passo Di Valcava
Probably the most brutal climb you can do near Bergamo. The views were worth it though. There’s nothing at the top but some cell towers and ranches. It’s interesting the contrast between Bergamo and the Dolomites, where every little pass had a touristy “Rigugio” ready to sell you 5 euro fridge magnets. In most of Italy there’s nothing at the top of these pretty huge forgotten climbs.
Maddalena di Brescia
I didn’t feel like riding more of the same mountains to the north of Bergamo and I know the south is just flat industrial/agricultural crap so I learned my lesson from riding near Mestre. Decided to hop on a train to Brescia, the next largest city other than Milan.
Bergamo is an interesting city to visit for sure, glad I stayed there. Being close to Milan and Brescia while being much more affordable makes it a decent stop but the cycling in general was not that great apart from Lake Iseo. However unlike the Dolomites, it has a very vast road network in the mountains which allow you to do all sorts of rides and loops depending on how you’re feeling. You don’t always have to do a 120km/3500m ride like in Badia.
Next up: Tourism and Travel in Bergamo!