Sometimes... actually no... very often, I visit an Italian city for the first time and I became completely besotted by it! It happened with Bergamo, which is not exactly a city on the tourist route, but to me it is definitely one of the prettiest in the North of Italy. Bergamo is divided in two parts, the Lower City (Città Bassa) which is more modern, with various administrative offices, shopping districts and elegant buildings, and the Upper City (Città Alta), which is a real Medieval and Renaissance gem. Here are some pics of the Città Bassa....
And then you can get a cable car of a bus and get into the Città Alta
Wikipedia says that Città Alta is an extremely expensive place to live in, with properties being sold for a minimum of 2,000,000 euro, but some of the most expensive and beautiful houses are on the uphill road towards Città Alta, some of them being old villas with lovely gardens.
Città Alta
A typical sweet that you can buy in Bergamo is Polenta e Osei, (Polenta cake with birds), The cake is not actually made with polenta, but only to look like polenta! The birds are made with marzipan rolled in cocoa, I found this video with a lovely version of Osei (birds), it is in the Bergamo dialect, but easy to understand. I found the recipe, but only in Italian, here, a bit involved really, maybe I'll just go back to Bergamo and buy some!! Arrivederci Bergamo!
Photos by Alessandra Zecchini ©
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