The last stop on this trip was Bergamo – it is by the airport where Ryanair flies. And it is by the snowy Alps that make a super beautiful background! But, this time we came to Bergamo in rain and the day we spent there was very misty and rainy, not so good for pictures. But first of allￂﾠ -the trip to Bergamo was not easy. WE went to Florence train station, they sold us tickets for the cheaper trains we used all the time -you find their schedules on www.trenitalia.com or www/seat61.com/Italy.htm -and expected it to be as usual – came to Bologna. got into the station to wait for another train to Milan and then to Bergamo. No way…Lots of people waiting, their necks stretched towards the information boards which say nothing-ￂﾠ yes, they say there is a train, but what time it is supposed to come? Nobody knew. at last we found information booth, which is not so evident there, Italy tries to sell tickets and provide information in automats. And we found out that our train company is on strike…So what did we do -we had to buy new tickets in the fast train that took us to some other station, but not Milan, then luckily got a train to Bergamo directly – oh. what a luck that was! Because our hosts in Bergamo were meeting us in the station, so we managed to call them about our schedule change and oh how wonderful it was to be taken by car to the apartment! it was like heaven! We found the apartment as all of them through internet and it is called Cosy Apartment in the City center, Maria Luiza Ponzoni is renting it, 39-3473822666, it is in via Sant Alessandro 82 – in a narrow medieval street in front of a monastery, a very cozy and comfortable apartment, I highly recommend it. Close to a food store, to a good pizza place, and on the way to the upper part of the city. We had to enter through those doors!:
And once we entered the upper city – Citia Alta through those gates of Porta S. Giacomo – we again got into medieval narrowￂﾠ streets, fun! And so we walked as usual, checked the very old and newer churches. Here is a sample of a fresco in a very old church standing side by side with some newer ones in one cluster, by one square:
This basilica that you see on top, came out to be the most impressive church to me on this trip…Well, maybe Santa Croce was equally impressive. Everything was impressive there-ￂﾠ the tapestries on the walls all over – never saw them in churches! The old fresco of the Last Supper, the paintings in the altars, the elaborate wooden mosaics under the main altar fence, the confessionals, the doors, the Donizetti’s grave as well as other noble people’s graves, everything:
Again – we walked and walked through nice squares and narrow streets:
Here is how they decorate the window of a store where they sell hair flowers :-)…
My poor Father – we dragged him up the hill so high up to the Castle. There is a funicular, but it was not working that day, so we walked on a cobbled street and it was not easy, but the views were breathtaking. If only the weather would have been a little sunnier:
And then we went back, my family rested and I still wanted to see the downtown – so here are some pics in twilight:
Here is a monument to their famous sonￂﾠ -Gaetano Donizetti!
Here is Bergamo view from the train station – it was on the day we flew into it, it was sunny – quite a difference!
All in allￂﾠ -Italy is a fantastic country, just amazing on each step. Their creativity is endless. Things and places to see are endless. How much time a person can spend there and how much energy one should have to consume so much art and beauty…