New Year festivities in Bergamo

Piazza Vecchia is a popular place for
 crowds to toast the New Year

New Year’s Eve is known as la Festa di San Silvestro in Italy and families and friends traditionally get together for a special dinner.

There are midnight fireworks displays in many city squares as well as at private parties. A custom that is still followed in some parts of Italy is throwing old, unwanted possessions out of the window to symbolise your readiness to accept the New Year.

The bars and restaurants are usually busy in Bergamo as both local residents and visitors see in the New Year.

Piazza Vecchia in the Città Alta (upper town) and Via Sentierone at the heart of the Città Bassa (lower town) are where the revellers gather just before midnight .

Before that, Il Presidente della Repubblica, Giorgio Napolitano, will have delivered Un Messaggio di Fine Anno -- an end-of-year message -- from his official residence, the Palazzo del Quirinale in Rome, shown on most of the Italian television channels at 20.30.

This will have been followed on Rai Uno by L’Anno Che Verrà, a live programme of pop and entertainment to see in the New Year.

Buon Anno from Best of Bergamo.

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Good food and great views at Il Gourmet Hotel in Bergamo

Just outside Bergamo’s Città Alta (upper town), Il Gourmet Ristorante Hotel offers guests a convenient yet peaceful location with stunning views from the terrace and many of the guest rooms.

Il Gourmet Ristorante Hotel

Il Gourmet, in Via San Vigilio, is a short walk from Porta Sant’Alessandro, one of the gates in the walls surrounding the medieval Città Alta.

It is close to the station for the funicular to San Vigilio and is also near Via Borgo Canale, the street with the house where Bergamo composer Gaetano Donizetti was born.

As the name implies, Il Gourmet prides itself on the meals served in its restaurant, which offers Bergamo specialities and Mediterranean cuisine. Il Gourmet’s wine cellar is stocked with many of the top labels from Italy and further afield.

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You can either dine on the terrace with panoramic views over Bergamo or in Il Gourmet’s smart dining room.

Il Gourmet’s building dates back to the 17th century when it was once a private residence. It was converted to a hotel at the beginning of the 19th century to accommodate the travellers and merchants that came to Bergamo with their goods.

Set in the green hills above Bergamo, Il Gourmet provides guests with a peaceful relaxing atmosphere while being handy for the Città Alta and the terminus of the bus route to the Città Bassa (lower town), the railway station and Bergamo Caravaggio Airport at Orio al Serio. There is also ample parking for guests with cars.

Il Gourmet has nine double rooms, one single room and an independent apartment with two double bedrooms, a sitting room and a private terrace.

The rooms all have air conditioning, a fridge bar and satellite television.

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Christmas in Bergamo

Christmas feast traditionally ends
with panettone 

Christmas is very much a family feast in Bergamo, just as in the rest of Italy and many other parts of the world.

After la Vigilia di Natale (Christmas Eve), when traditionally a fish meal is consumed and the adults go to midnight mass, Natale (Christmas Day) is a time for feasting.

While the children open their presents, the adults savour a glass of good Prosecco or uncork a special vintage bottle while they prepare the festive table.

Friends and relatives who drop in with presents or to exchange good wishes will be offered nuts, biscuits and torrone (nougat from Cremona).

Antipasti is likely to include Parma ham or bresaola (cured beef), served with preserved mushrooms, olives or pickled vegetables.

Stuffed pasta is usually served as a first course, either in the shape of ravioli or tortellini, which are said to have been offered as Christmas gifts to priests and monks during the 12th century.

For the main course, turkey or capon is likely to be served in the Lombardia region, with potatoes and vegetables as side dishes.

The traditional end to the meal is almost always panettone, served warm accompanied by a glass of sparkling wine.

Panettone is said to have been concoted by a Milanese baker, Antonio (Toni), to impress his girlfriend at Christmas time in the 15th century. The result was so successful that ‘Pane de Toni’ has become a regular feature of the Christmas season all over Italy and now even abroad.

The feasting and family parties continue on 26 December, the festa di Santo Stefano (Boxing Day).

Buon Natale from Best of Bergamo, Buon Appetito e Salute.

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Bergamo celebrates start of Christmas

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Banks and offices in Bergamo are closed today and special masses are taking place in the churches as residents and visitors celebrate the official beginning of  Christmas.

Christmas lights in Città Alta

Il Giorno dell’
immacolata concezione (the day of the immaculate conception) has been celebrated for centuries in Italy on 8 December.

It is an official festa (feast day) when the immaculate conception of Jesus is celebrated in the Christian calendar. It also marks the start of the Christmas season when the lights and trimmings go up.

Although the banks and public offices are closed, all the shops in Bergamo are open as usual with many people not at work and taking the opportunity to do some Christmas shopping.

As in many other countries across the world, Christmas shopping actually starts much earlier than 8 December in Italy, with Christmas trees, lights and decorations going up during November.

Via XX Settembre in Bergamo’s Città Bassa (lower town), which is known to locals as ‘the shopping street’ will be thronged with activity from now until Christmas Eve.

Buona Festa!

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Where beautiful music was born in Bergamo

Not to be missed in Bergamo’s Città Bassa…

CASA NATALE DI DONIZETTI

Via Borgo Canale

Opera composer Gaetano Donizetti was born 214 years ago today in a house in Via Borgo Canale, a street that is just a few metres outside the walls of Bergamo’s Città Alta (upper town).

A prolific composer of operas in the early part of the 19th century, Donizetti was a major influence on Verdi, Puccini and other famous Italian composers who came after him.

You can visit the Casa Natale, where he was born on 29 November 1797 . His birthplace, at number 14, is in the middle of a row of characteristic, tall houses and is marked by a plaque.

Leave the Città Alta through Porta Sant’Alessandro and go past the station for the San Vigilio funicolare. You will find Via Borgo Canale is the next street on the right.

Donizetti was the fifth of six children born to a textile worker and his wife. He once wrote about his birthplace: “…I was born underground in Borgo Canale. One descended the stairs to the basement, where no ray of sunlight had ever been seen. And like an owl I flew forth…”

Donizetti developed a love for music and despite the poverty of his family benefited from early tuition in Bergamo . He went on to compose works that have been acclaimed as the greatest lyrical operas of all time such as Lucia di Lammermoor and L’Elisir d’Amore.

Donizetti Museum

After a magnificent career Donizetti returned to Bergamo and died in 1843 in the Palazzo Scotti, where he was living as a guest, in the street now named Via Donizetti in the Città Alta.

Donizetti's birthplace at No 14

There is a museum dedicated to his life and career in the Città Alta, housed in the former Palazzo Misericordia Maggiore in Via Arena.

Donizetti’s tomb is in the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore in Piazza Duomo in the Città Alta.

A monument dedicated to him was erected in Bergamo in 1897, 100 years after his birth, near the theatre that was renamed Teatro Donizetti in Via Sentierone in the Città Bassa (lower town.)

Casa Natale is open to the public at weekends only. Check the opening times with the Tourist Information Office in Via Gombito in the Citta Alta.

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Winter flights to Bergamo from UK airports

Ryanair flies to Bergamo from five UK airports

During the winter months, there are currently direct flights to Bergamo's Caravaggio Airport, otherwise known as Orio al Serio or Milan (Bergamo), from five UK airports. All are operated by budget airline Ryanair. 

Here is Best of Bergamo's updated flights schedule for UK departures. The times quoted are reproduced in good faith but should be seen only as a guide.  All times are subject to change, so it's always best to check with the airline to confirm a particular flight.

From Bristol
Ryanair flies twice a week from Bristol.

Until March 24
Tuesday, Saturday: 0825 (no flight Dec 24; 0815 on Dec 27, Jan 3, Jan 10)
Flight time: 2hrs 20m

From East Midlands
Ryanair flies twice a week from East Midlands, increasing to three times a week in spring 2012.

Until December 18 and From March 8
Tuesday, Sunday: 1840
From March 25
Sunday, Wednesday: 1220; Friday: 1150.
Flight time: 2hrs 20m

From Liverpool
Ryanair operates a service from Liverpool on three days per week.

Until March 24
Sunday: 0830 (1130 on Jan 1); Wednesday: 1820; Friday: 2000.
Flight time: 2hrs 15m

From London Stansted
There are services with Ryanair three times daily and up to four times daily during the Christmas-New Year period.

Until March 24
Sunday: 0625, 1355, 1915; Monday to Friday: 0630, 1355, 1915; Saturday:  0630, 1205, 1915.
Extra flight at 1425 on Dec 18, Dec 20, Dec 27, Jan 3, Jan 8.
Extra flight at 1235 on Dec 23, Dec 30, Jan 6.
No flight on Dec 25
Dec 26: 0935, 1355, 1910; Jan 1: 1355, 1425, 1915; Jan 2: 0630, 1355, 1915.
Flight time: 2hrs.

From Manchester
A daily Ryanair flight from Manchester serves Bergamo.

Until March 24
Sunday, Wednesday: 0840; Monday: 1900; Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday: 0625; Friday: 1645.
No flight on Dec 25.
Dec 26: 1005; Jan 1: 1145.
Flight time: 2hrs 15m.

To book, or check times, go to www.ryanair.com

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Bergamo birthplace named after popular Pope John

Sotto il Monte Giovanni XXIII

Sotto il Monte near Bergamo was the birthplace of the much loved Pope John XXIII 130 years ago today.

You can visit the house where he was born in the hamlet of Brusicco and the summer residence at Camaitino that he used when he was a cardinal, now a history museum dedicated to him.

This scattered rural commune, which is a short bus or car journey to the west of Bergamo, has since been renamed Sotto il Monte Giovanni XXIII.

Pope John was born Angelo Roncalli on 25 November 1881, the third of 13 children in a farming family.

He was tutored by a local priest before entering the seminary at Bergamo at the age of 12. He went on to study theology in Rome and rose to become Cardinal Patriarch of Venice before being elected Pope in 1958.

His religious studies were interrupted by a spell in the Italian army but he was ordained in 1904. He served as secretary to the Bishop of Bergamo for nine years before becoming an army chaplain in World War One.

After the war he worked in Bulgaria, Turkey and Greece on behalf of the church helping to locate prisoners of war.

In 1944 he was appointed nuncio (envoy) to Paris to help with the post war effort in France. He became a Cardinal in 1953 and expected to spend his last years serving the church in Venice .

But when he was elected Pope by his fellow cardinals in the conclave of 20 October 1958 it was a turning point in the church’s history.

Although he was Pope for less than five years, he enlarged the College of Cardinals to make it more representative, consecrated 14 new bishops for Asia and Africa, advanced ecumenical relations and worked for world peace

Since his death on 3 June 1963 his birthplace and the museum set up to commemorate his life have become popular destinations for pilgrims.

There is also a permanent reminder of him in Bergamo’s Città Bassa (lower town) where the main thoroughfare from the railway station to Porta Nuova has been renamed Viale Papa Giovanni XXIII.

Opening hours: Casa Natale (birthplace) at Brusicco 8.30 am to 5.30 pm (winter); Museo di Papa Giovanni (Pope John Museum) at Camaitino 8.30 am to 11.30 and 2.30 pm to 6.30 (all year round).

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