THE ROMAN HOLIDAYS...BERGAMO

Any thing connected to Italy reminds me of the famous movie " Roman holiday " , which I cant stop watching even today....and of course the famous comic series Asterix...

I came to Milan for 2 weeks and now it is almost 8 weeks and wondering if I will ever get back to kitchen , I mean home. Almost everyday I get mails and phones from friends if I have visited Rome, Florence, Pisa, Venice  etc etc and get confused if I have come here for work or on holidays!! If I say so, they will say , we are talking about saturdays and sundays. It is impossible to convince them that I prefer to laze around in my appartment rather than going for site seeing...They dont know I have honors in Laziness and will certainly get Ph.D if I want.

Anyway, I must see some places at least , otherwise my official visit to Italy would be useless in the eyes of others even if I had most useful weekends after years, lazing around.

I dont intend to write a travelogue here in my food posting . I am just sharing some photos, internet link to this place of visit .

BERGAMO

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bergamo
Bergamo is a pretty town of some 120,000 people nestling in the foothills of the Alps. Widely acclaimed as a city of rare beauty, Bergamo is famous for its wealth of artistic treasures and enchanting medieval atmosphere. It is a real life tale of two cities: “Città Bassa”, the busy and modern lower city, and "Città Alta", the upper city with its rich heritage of art and history.It takes 1hr 30 min by regionale trains and 1 hr by fast trains.(from Milan)

So on a fine Saturday late morning I set out with my colleague Sunny. He is a young Chinese engineer from Hong Kong, in his mid 20s and  I have made him very fond of real spicy Indian  curry with basmati rice and has never eaten Indo- chinese dishes and I dont want to try it too.

So we walked down to Garibaldi station next door, missed the 11 AM train rushed to Milano Centrale , spent 20 minutes for buying ticket missed the fast train and again rushed back to Garibaldi and finally got into a train. ( the slower but cheaper ones)  

At Bergamo station , a surprise was waiting for us. Preparation for a Carnival was going on which was supposed to start around 3 PM or so. I was delighted that I would see some great event.

Walking from the station to the old city at Hill top.1 Out side Bergamo station

2. Colorful buildings

3 A building close up

4.Approach to upper city

5, 6, 7 Upper city seen from the lower

8.9.  From the new city , one takes a rail car up the slope, one can walk and residence of the upper city can take their car up.

Lane in the upper city

10.The Biblioteca Angelo Mai on the Piazza Vecchia ( town Hall)

11 Cappela Colleoni

12

14

16

 I know you have noticed, I am wearing the same jacket, well I had taken only one for one weekend..didnot know , would have to be here for many.....

 Now rush to the Carinival..it was a real treat, only posting few here

 In front of Bergamo station, in a hurry to ctach train

See you in Venice and Cinque Terre