See our new flights guide

Bergamo's Orio al Serio airport, located just a short bus ride from the town, has become a major European hub, with the low-cost airline Ryanair operating flights to and from many destinations.
In fact, you can fly to Bergamo currently from 27 different countries around Europe and Northern Africa. At different times of year it is accessible directly from even more countries.

At the moment, there are flights to Bergamo from Albania, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Canary Islands, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Morocco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

Our new flights guide offers a comprehensive list of every flight from every airline, with information on departure times for each airport and how long the flight will take.

Find out how easy it is for you to fly to Bergamo.

Go to the Fly to Bergamo page.

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Bergamo’s bells ring out for Saint Alexander

From 10.30 tonight till 12.15 am, seven bells will ring one after the other in Bergamo to mark the festival for Sant’Alessandro.

The bells of the Torre Civica, Cattedrale di Sant’Alessandro, Santa Maria Maggiore, Sant’Agata al Carmine, Sant’Alessandro della Croce, Santa Caterina and Sant’Alessandro in Colonna will all ring to celebrate the festival to honour Bergamo’s patron saint.

The concert also aims to underline the musical and historic value of the bells to the city of Bergamo .

The programme begins at 10.30 with the bell of the Torre Civica , Il Campanone (big bell), and will finish with all the bells ringing together at midnight when the festival begins.

The annual celebrations on August 26 in Bergamo commemorate the date in 303 that Sant’Alessandro was martyred by the Romans for refusing to renounce his Christian faith. It is believed Alessandro was a devout citizen who had continued to preach in Bergamo, despite several narrow escapes, but was eventually caught and suffered decapitation. The picture above shows a church door in Bergamo decorated for the festival.

A series of religious, cultural and gastronomic events will takes place in his name over several days throughout the city, which will be decorated with festive lights.

Porta Sant’Alessandro, which leads from the Città Alta (upper town) to Borgo Canale and San Vigilio, was built in the 16^th century. It was named after a fourth century cathedral that had originally been dedicated to the saint but was later demolished.

Near the gate you will find a column with a plaque describing the structure of the ancient cathedral, which was originally built on the saint’s burial spot.

Porta Sant’Alessandro became a checkpoint manned by customs officers, who would tax farmers from outside the city bringing in vegetables, eggs, chickens and wine to sell to residents of the Città Alta (upper town).


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Lady Mary’s life in Lovere

Lovere's main square

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, one of the first female English travel writers, died 248 years ago today on 21 August, 1762.

Lady Mary lived for nearly 10 years in Lovere on Lago Iseo near Bergamo during the later years of her life.

She constantly praised Lovere (pictured right) as a holiday resort and is reputed to have once declined an invitation to the Venice Carnival saying: “There are plenty of things to do in this village, which, by the way, is one of the most beautiful that exists.”

Lady Mary, whose image is shown in a portrait below, travelled extensively at the beginning of the 18th century with her husband, who was appointed British ambassador to Turkey. During this time she wrote poetry and letters that established her literary reputation.

She became an advocate of inoculation against smallpox, having witnessed the practice on her travels.

But she left her husband in 1739 and went to live in Italy alone. It was on the advice of her doctor that she moved from Brescia to Lovere, where she bought an old palace. She spent happy years there designing her garden and reading the books her daughter sent out to her from England.

She enjoyed entertaining local nobility and making the occasional trip to Genova and Padova, inspired to write poetry by the beauty of Lago Iseo and the “impassable mountains” surrounding it.

While living in Lovere she wrote in a letter to her daughter: “I am now in a place the most beautifully romantic I ever saw in my life.”

She returned to live in England in 1761 and died the following year. Her last words were reputed to be: “It has all been most interesting.”


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Piazza built to protect Bergamo

Piazza Cittadella

If you enter the Città Alta (upper town) from Largo Colle Aperto you will go through a covered passageway into Piazza Cittadella, one of the most important squares in Bergamo’s history.

It was built in the middle of the 14th century by Bernabo Visconti, a member of the powerful family from Milan that ruled Bergamo for 70 years. It was designed to be part of the fortifications of the city and is believed to be on the site of a previous Roman structure.

A central pathway, as pictured above, takes you diagonally across the square, where despite modifications over the centuries and the most recent restoration work in 1959, you still have the feeling of being inside the walls of a medieval castle.

Under the porticos on the left hand side markets are occasionally held with stalls selling souvenirs, paintings and jewellery, while on the right hand side you will see the Command post (pictured left) for the Carabinieri officers who guard the Città Alta.

Piazza Cittadella is now also home to two of Bergamo’s prestigious museums.

The Museo Archeologico (Archaeological Museum) houses many prehistoric, Roman and early Christian finds.

The Enrico Caffi Museo Civico di Scienze Naturali (Enrico Caffi Civic Natural Sciences Museum) has among its exhibits the skeleton of a giant mammoth and the fossil of an ancient flying reptile.

Leave the square through an archway under the Torre della Campanella to pass into Piazza Mascheroni, which will lead you further into the Città Alta.

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Sample liberty style in Milan

There is so much to see in Milan that a day trip from Bergamo may not be enough. If you choose to spend a night in the city, it is important to book a hotel in a handy location to cut down on travelling time.

Hotel Ariosto

The elegant Magenta district with its art nouveau palaces, described as lo stile liberty in Italian, is a good choice if you plan to see Il Cenacolo (The Last Supper), by Leonardo da Vinci or the impressive Castello Sforzesco. 

The Hotel Ariosto in Via Ariosto is housed in a liberty style building (pictured) that has been completely renovated to provide modern comforts.

The hotel is only 200 metres from the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie where Leonardo painted his largest and most famous work in the convent of the refectory. Booking in advance is essential if you wish to see the painting.

The Hotel Ariosto in the Magenta district is a ten minute walk from the Castello Sforzesco and is also close to the Cadorna railway station, a metro and a tram stop and the Corso Vercelli shopping area.

The rooms  look out either over an inner courtyard or at the decorative facades of the palaces opposite in the Via Ariosto. All have satellite television and wi-fi connections and guests have the choice of either a room service breakfast or the buffet breakfast served in the restaurant.

For more information visit www.hotelariosto.com or telephone 39 02 4817844.

Alternatively, book with Hotels.com

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Bergamo’s festival for Saint Alexander

Bergamo’s patron saint, Sant’ Alessandro, will be honoured by a festival in the city beginning on Thursday, August 26.

The start of the annual event commemorates the date in 303 that he was martyred by the Romans for refusing to renounce his Christian faith. It is believed Sant’ Alessandro was a devout citizen who had continued to preach in Bergamo, despite several narrow escapes, but was eventually caught and suffered decapitation.

A series of religious, cultural and gastronomic events will takes place in his name over several days throughout the city, which will be decorated with festive lights. 

Porta Sant’ Alessandro (pictured), which leads from the Città Alta (upper town) to Borgo Canale and San Vigilio, was built in the 16th century. It was named after a fourth century cathedral that had originally been dedicated to the saint but was later demolished.

Near the gate you will find a column with a plaque describing the structure of the ancient cathedral, which was originally built on the saint’s burial spot.

Porta Sant’ Alessandro was built in grey stone topped with yellow. It went on to become a checkpoint manned by customs officers, who would tax farmers from outside the city who were bringing in vegetables, eggs, chickens and wine to sell to residents of the Città Alta.

Bergamo’s tribute to Donizetti

Donizetti monument in Piazza Cavour

Opera lovers will not want to miss paying a visit to the monument to composer Gaetano Donizetti situated in Bergamo’s Città Bassa (lower town).

It was erected in 1897 in Piazza Cavour, off the Sentierone, to commemorate the first anniversary of Donizetti’s birth.

An imposing structure in white marble, it depicts the composer sitting on a bench gazing at the figure of a female playing the lyre.

Set in the middle of a pond and surrounded by plants and trees, the monument is inscribed simply ‘A Gaetano Donizetti’.

You could almost imagine that the prolific composer of operas is looking longingly past the mythical musician in the direction of the nearby theatre, which was renamed in his honour after his death.

The creator of Donizetti’s monument was the Calabrian, Francesco Ierace, who won a competition for the best design. His plaster model of the monument, along with the other competition entries, is among the exhibits in the Donizetti Museum in Via Arena in the Città Alta (upper town).

Bergamo’s renaissance riches

In the 16th century, Bergamo’s Città Alta (upper town) must have been a glorious sight with the outside walls of many of the palaces elaborately decorated with frescoes.

To get an idea of what the city would have looked like, walk down Via Porta Dipinta from Piazza Mercato delle Scarpe in the direction of Porta Sant’ Agostino.

Via Porta Dipinta was an important route into the Città Alta from medieval times and many important families built palaces along it.

You will see traces of frescoes dating from renaissance times on the facades of many of the buildings, similar to the example shown here (above).

Look out for the Palazzo Moroni at number 12, which is considered to be one of the best examples of baroque architecture in Bergamo .

Via Porta Dipinta (literally Street of the Painted Gate) takes its name from a medieval gate, of which only a few traces now remain, that was richly decorated. It was sited near the water fountain that you will notice in an archway on the right hand side of the road.

After passing through Largo San Michele al Pozzo Bianco the road curves round to take you through Porta Sant’ Agostino into the Città Bassa (lower town).

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