Travel itineraries in Bergamo and its province

Hiking in the Orobic Alps
The Sentiero delle Orobie, which develops along the mountains of the Province of Bergamo, offers the opportunity to immerse oneself in the heart and in the wildest areas of these Alps, giving truly suggestive views of the environment.

Eno-gastronomic routes and food experience
In Bergamo you can eat wonderfully. The typical delicacies range from the Scarpinòcc and Capu of Parre to the polenta taragna of the Valbrembana, from the spalla cotta of Schilpario to the barbed corn of Gandino and rostrato rosso of Rovetta, but also the raviolo of Covo, and the numerous fresh or aged cheeses, 9 of which are D.O.P. (Protected Designation of Origin) certified.

Art tours
From the wooden sculptures of the Fantoni to the portraits of Moroni, passing by Cima da Conegliano, Palma il Vecchio, Cavagna, Cifrondi, Baschenis, Carnovali… There are many people from Bergamo who have left their mark on art. This sign is often present, especially in the land where these artists were born and raised.

Music of Bergamo
Gaetano Donizetti and Simone Mayr, but also the famous cellist Alfredo Piatti or the Roman tenor Giovanni Battista Rubini, true legends of classical music and opera of the 1800s, up to the conductor Gianandrea Gavazzeni.

Industrial archaeology
Bergamo was a land of silk mills, cotton mills, lineries, wool mills, especially between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, but also cradle of the Italcementi Group. There are still many possibilities to imagine that lost world, thanks to the redevelopment of many of these giant industrial complexes where once entire towns or valleys found work: Alzano Lombardo, Ponte Nossa, Martinengo, Ghisalba, Caprino Bergamasco…

Art Nouveau in the valleys
The most striking example is San Pellegrino, with its center and its Casino, just restored to its former glory, but also the Spa. And then the Presolana Pass, where the Milanese and Swiss industrialists of the early 1900s, with their luxurious villas, invented the concept of holidays in the modern sense of the term.

The Tasso family and the first postal service
Cornello dei Tasso, in Valbrembana, preserves the remains of the important family that invented and administered for decades the postal service of half of Europe. The word “taxi” is said to come from them.

The old, large trade routes of Valbrembana
Echoes of a world that no longer exists, but that was based, then as now, on the great trade and communication routes. The western Orobie are a bit less impervious than the eastern ones: in Val Brembana you could follow the via Mercatorum, the Taverna road, up to the seventeenth-century via Priùla, that allowed you to connect Bergamo to the San Marco Pass and then to the Valtellina. Nowadays, the ancient routes still reserve fascinating surprises.

Lost arts and crafts
The production of the famous “coti stones” of Pradalunga and Nembro, the stone roofs (the piöde) of the Imagna Valley or the slate roofs of the upper Valseriana, the glorious forges on the Goglio stream, where the swords of Milan were forged; the hammers and the art of the “ciödarói”, the zinc mines of the Valle del Riso and Val Serina, the iron mines of the Val di Scalve up to the true European fulcrum of the 20th century textile sector: the Valgandino.

Ancient manors
There are many castles in Bergamo that can still be seen today in all their splendid magnificence: Pagazzano, Marne, Malpaga, Cavernago, but also Bianzano, Urgnano, Solza, Costa di Mezzate … a journey rich in history, but also in disturbing crimes and mysteries, with a name that almost always peeps out: the name of the most famous Bergamo-born ever: Bartolomeo Colleoni.

In the footsteps of the ancient people from the Orobic Alps
The ancient ravines of our mountains have sometimes shown signs of the plight and life of the proto-Celtic civilizations that settled here before the Romans: from the ancient Parra (Parre) to the walls of Ca’ Marta (Brembilla), from the mysterious erratic rock of Val Sedornia (Gandellino) to the rock carvings of the Carona mountains.

Water: the great wealth of the Bergamo valleys
It was the wealth of water in the Bergamo area that attracted Swiss entrepreneurs at the end of the 19th century. Today, however, the water of Bergamo is drunk, above all. San Pellegrino is undoubtedly one of the Italian symbols in the world, but there are at least ten Bergamo mineral waters on the market today. However, the Nossana spring is not bottled, but goes straight to Bergamo to be drunk directly from the city’s taps.

Wellness and Thermalism
The most famous are those of San Pellegrino, which have just been relaunched; however, whether for wellness or treatment, there are several others Spa in the Bergamo area: Trescore Balneario, Sant’Omobono, Gaverina. Now that this type of wellness is finally rediscovered, Bergamo has all the means to be found ready.

Religious and Faith-based Itineraries
The land of Bergamo has always been one of fervent Catholic worship. There are at least thirty Marian sanctuaries in the mountain valleys, three basilicas in the Seriana Valley alone, all incredibly rich in ideas of faith and art (the Danza Macabra in Clusone, for example). Moving south, there are many other treasures to visit: from the Sanctuary of Santa Maria del Fonte in Caravaggio to the Rotonda di San Tomé in Almenno San Bartolomeo.

The dark mysteries of the caves
Few people know it, but the Bergamo valleys are full of spectacular caves. Some are impervious and dangerous, but many others can be visited: from the Imagna Valley to the Brembana Valley, without forgetting Fonteno and the upper Seriana Valley, there are many opportunities to stay in suspense by putting your nose inside the bowels of the earth, which have remained untouched for thousands of years.