HISTORY OF BERGAMO:
Bergamo was settled during the Iron Age by the Orobii, a population that inhabited the northern Italian valleys of Bergamo, Como and Lecco in the 1st millennium BC. Around 550 BC, the city was conquered, together with Brescia and Verona, by the Cenomani, an ancient tribe of the Cisalpine Gauls, who devastated the area. Read More [...]
Around the year 200 BC, the city was conquered by the Romans, who called it Bergomum. Following an edict by Julius Caesar, the inhabitants became Roman citizens in 49 BC. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, in the 5th century AD, the city was repeatedly invaded and sacked by the barbarian tribes. In 402, the Visigoths of Alaric I occupied the area and about fifty years later it was the turn of the Huns of Attila. Then, followed the Rugii, the Ostrogoths, the Byzantines and the Longobards.
Bergamo regained its independence only after the conquest of northern Italy by Charlemagne, in 774. The city was destroyed by the army of the Holy Roman Emperor Arnulf of Carinthia in 894 and by the Emperor Berengar I of Italy in 902. Starting with the 11th century, Bergamo was an independent commune, which, as a part of the Lombard League, defeated Frederick I Barbarossa in 1165.
In 1428, Bergamo was ceded by the Duchy of Milan to the Republic of Venice. In 1797, the Treaty of Campo Formio formally recognized the inclusion of Bergamo into the Cisalpine Republic, which was later part of the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy starting with 1805. After the Congress of Vienna of 1815, Bergamo became part of the Lombardo-Venetian Kingdom, and in 1859, when Giuseppe Garibaldi conquered the city, Bergamo was included in the newly-proclaimed Kingdom of Italy.
GEOGRAPHY OF BERGAMO:
Bergamo is today a city of about 120,000 inhabitants in the province of the same name, in the alpine Lombardy region of northern Italy. Bergamo is composed of an ancient historical center, known as Città Alta (Upper Town), and the modern part of the city, known as Città Bassa (Lower Town). Read More [...]
The city is located approximately 50 kilometers northeast of Milan, 50 kilometers northwest of Brescia, 116 kilometers northwest of Verona, 125 kilometers northwest of Parma, 190 kilometers northeast of Turin, 192 kilometers northeast of Genoa, 195 kilometers northwest of Padua, 217 kilometers northwest of Bologna, 235 kilometers west of Venice, and about 600 kilometers northwest of Rome.
TRANSPORT TO BERGAMO:
The closest airport is the Orio al Serio International Airport, also known as Il Caravaggio International Airport, located about 4 kilometers southeast of Bergamo, in the municipality of Orio al Serio. Read More [...]
The bus Line 1 of the local transport company ATB (Azienda Trasporti Bergamo) makes the connection between the airport and the main railway station of the city. The trip takes about 15 minutes and a single ticket costs 2.4€ at the ticket office or 3€ if bought from the ticket machine.
By train, you can get to Bergamo from Milan in about 50 minutes and from Brescia in about one hour. The cheapest train ticket from Milan is 5.80€, while the cheapest ticket from Brescia is 5.00€.
TOURIST ATTRACTIONS IN BERGAMO:
The most important tourist attractions in Città Alta, the historical center of Bergamo, are: Piazza Vecchia, the heart of the old town, with the Contarini Fountain (Fontana Contarini) in the center, the nearby Palazzo della Ragione, the beautiful Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, the Cathedral of Bergamo dedicated to Saint Alexander of Bergamo, patron saint of the city, the Colleoni Chapel (Cappella Colleoni), the civic tower known as Campanone and the Baptistery of the Cathedral. Read More [...]