Experience the best of Bergamo

Bergamo's old Città Alta sits on a hill above the plain, ringed by the long Venetian walls, a World Heritage Site, and reached from the lower town by a funicular. Cobbled lanes lead to Piazza Vecchia, a graceful square flanked by the Palazzo della Ragione and the tall Civic Tower, whose bell still rings each night. Just beyond it, the Colleoni Chapel's marble facade and the Romanesque church of Santa Maria Maggiore compete for attention.

The Accademia Carrara in the lower town holds paintings by Raphael, Botticelli and Lorenzo Lotto, and the composer Gaetano Donizetti was born in Bergamo. Lake Iseo and the Franciacorta wine hills lie to the east, Lake Como to the west, and the Brembo valley climbs into the Bergamo Alps. Crespi d'Adda, a preserved workers' village on the Adda river, is a World Heritage Site, and Milan is about fifty kilometres away.

Polenta is the foundation of Bergamasque cooking, served with game, cheese or stewed meats, and casoncelli, filled pasta with butter and sage, is the local classic. Polenta e osei, a sponge cake topped with marzipan and chocolate birds, is the city's sweet. Taleggio and Branzi cheeses come from the valleys, and the hills of Valcalepio produce red and white wine. The Alps show clearly on crisp spring days.