Tourism in this Lombard city is growing as a destination of choice for Italian and foreign tourists alike. There are many reasons to visit Bergamo in 2022 and beyond, but perhaps above all are a new artistic-cultural vivacity, and of course, the gastronomy.
Riccardo Muti, the most appreciated Italian conductor in the world will celebrate, at the Teatro Donizetti his 50th anniversary since his debut, which took place in Bergamo in November 1966. This is a unique event of the Donizetti festival Opera, for which there is also the presence of the Head of State Sergio Mattarella.
Bergamo loves celebrate its symbolic master, Gaetano Donizetti. There is a new Donizetti Opera festival in the days around the composer’s birthday. Rare Donizetti works are presented in a modern key(“Olivo e Pasquale” at the Teatro Sociale, and “Rosmonda d’Inghilterra,” at the Teatro Donizetti, plus a unique event.
Donizetti’s arias seem to accompany tourists in the squares and the streets of Città Alta up to Christmas, thanks to a system of piped music, you can relive the great master’s Bergamo, immersed in an atmosphere of great beauty.
It is above all the spectacular panorama, which also embraces a vast part of the Pre-Alps, to attract tourists to the Castle of San Vigilio. The last outpost guarding the city, at the top of the hill of the same name, at an altitude of 496 meters, can be reached by funicular.
Donizetti is also fun: there is also the Donizetti Spritz, anew cocktail-aperitif celebrating the memory of the great composer, created by Tony Foini, historic barman of the cocktail bar and restaurant Le Iris, and already a symbol of city. It can be ordered in other places, such as the Baretto di San Vigilio or the Trattoria Sant’Ambroues in Piazza Vecchia.
More Reasons to Visit Bergamo
There is a boom of requests for the Donizetti Cake: the cake of which the original patents are still kept at the Balzer bar, where the founder, Alessandro Balzer, created it in 1948, on the occasion of the centenary of the death of the famous composer from Bergamo. A cake shaped like a donut, with pieces of candied pineapple that, like never before in this season, is the most loved gourmet souvenir of the city.
The East Lombardy project has a window in the central Piazza Dante: it is the steel and glass pavilion that every Thursday evening hosts an aperitif dedicated to the producers of the Valcalepio Wine and Flavors Route. Tuesday is the turn of the cheeses of the Bergamo valleys, while every second and fourth Saturday of the month there is the Slow Food “Market of the Earth,” with a cooking show.
Remaining in the field of gastronomy, casoncelli play a major role: the typical stuffed pasta that celebrates 650 years ago and a culinary tradition carried forward from generation to generation. And if it is true that each family has its own secret recipe, the basic ingredients, however, do not change: fresh pasta and meat stuffing (pork and beef) with the addition of amaretti, sultanas and lemon peel.
Bergamo is going around the world on social networks but also on the main international information sites, in the sections dedicated to travel: the Telegraph has included Bergamo in the list of lesser-known cities to see in Italy. And the New York Times describes it as “beautiful and unexplored” (pictured). How to resist from trying in person what is written by authoritative pens?