September 23 – Bergamo

September 23 – Bergamo, Italy
After another wonderful breakfast, we met at 8:30am to board the bus for Bergamo. It took 1 3/4 hours to get there. Bergamo is both a modern lower town and a medieval upper town with both parts connected by a funicular.
The bus dropped us off at the funicular and we met our local guide, Anna, at the top.

We walked down to the Giacomo Gate to see the Venetian Wall and then back up. Over each of the four gates is a lion with the motto of Venice.
We walked around for 2 hours visiting churches, mausoleums, and viewing the different buildings and towers of upper Bergamo. The best place we visited was St. Maria Magiorre Basilica. The outside was marble and looked like it was small inside. When we walked in, it was quite large with every surface covered in paintings and tapestries from the 16th and 17th centuries. Donzetti’s tomb was in the church too. The strangest thing was the coat of arms outside the Colleoni Mauseleum. It had 3 tear shaped things which turned out to be testicles because he had three. It is said that if you rub them you will have good luck. Colleoni was a famous army commander from Venice who died in 1477 a.d.
Lunch was a polenta appetizer, speck (dry aged smoked ham) ravioli, and donizetti cake.
We had a free hour after lunch and many of us walked up to a castle off the piazza by the funicular. It had a great view of the valley beyond Bergamo.
We headed back to Cernobbio at 3:10pm. On the bus ride back we listened to a variety of music from Volare to Yellow Submarine to Dean Martin’s That’s Amore. It made a long drive shorter.
Tomorrow we take the ferry to Bellagio for the day.