Visiting Milan was incredible, I saw a lot, learned a lot and got to know a new culture. Italy is a beautiful country, and the people are real hosts, they always welcome you with a smile. Milan as a city, delighted me. Although it is a small city, it has a lot to offer, from fashion, through Italian cuisine, to its incredible history and historical sights.
On the last day, we walked through Milan to breathe and feel the last breath of fashion.
Our airport was located in Bergamo, where we had to stop and also walk around. Also, an interesting city, we only walked around the old town, which pleasantly surprised us. I hope you like it as much as we do.
Bergamo's old town
There are cities that you conquer with a look, and those that you conquer with a step. Bergamo belongs to the others. As you ascend towards its Old Town, or as the locals call it, Città Alta, you have the feeling that every step leads through the centuries.
The old town lies on a hill, surrounded by Venetian walls from the 16th century, which are still intact today. When you pass through one of the monumental gates, the world changes, the asphalt disappears, and the cobblestones crunch under your feet. The houses are crowded, the windows are decorated with flowers, and the air is filled with the smell of coffee, fresh pastries and history.
Bergamo has not always looked like this. In the time of the Romans, it was called Bergomum and was a strategic military and trade center. Later, the Lombards, the Franks, the Visigoths passed through here, and each nation left something behind, but the hill always remained the heart of the city.
The real turning point came in the 15th century, when Bergamo fell under the rule of the Republic of Venice. The Venetians built massive walls, not only to defend the city, but also to show their power. Today, those walls are under the protection of UNESCO and are one of the most beautiful features of Bergamo.
As you walk through the narrow streets, each of them seems to whisper a part of its story to you, about merchants who sold silk, about craftsmen who forged tools, about families who watched the city from their stone windows.
Today, in those same streets are small boutiques, galleries and restaurants. It can easily happen there that you stop only "for a minute" to try a polenta e osei cake, and end up watching passers-by from the shade of a café awning for an entire hour.
In the heart of Città Alta is Piazza Vecchia, a square that has been a gathering place for centuries. There is the Palazzo della Ragione, the former seat of the city government, and the tall Campanone tower whose bell rings exactly 100 times every night at 10 p.m., the old signal that the gates are closing. Today, it is more of a romantic ritual than a practical necessity.
Just a few steps away, an artistic wonder awaits you, that is the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore. Its interior is lavish with mosaics, frescoes and carved wood, and next to it stands the Capella Colleoni, a jewel of Renaissance architecture, built as a private endowment of the famous condottiere Bartolomeo Colleoni.
Below Città Alta lies Città Bassa, the more modern part of Bergamo, with wide boulevards and contemporary life. But up on the hill, time moves more slowly. It doesn't matter how fast you walk, but how much you absorb.
Perhaps the secret of Bergamo is that it does not try to win you over quickly. It allows you to discover it slowly, from the view from the walls to the valley, to the small details on the facades that have been there for centuries.
Once you come down from the hill, you realise that you took more than just photos with you from the Old Town - you took with you the feeling that, even for a short time, you were a part of something that lasts much longer than us.
I hope you enjoyed reading and looking at the photos. I enjoyed making this blog, I hope you did too. Until next time, "Regards!"