I risked my breakfast by deciding to take the ferry direct from Bellagio to Lecco rather than adding an extra train leg from Varenna. I have’t been able to tolerate boats since a scuba diving decompression stop disaster a decade ago. I even get motion sick on the bus home from work! But Bitti and I made it without any illness. The ferry was almost empty so we had some great seats from which to appreciate the lakeside ports under intermittently grey skies.
In Lecco I realised I had forgotten to download the map, so we stalked a couple who seemed to be on a mission to onward travel. Unfortunately they were two grown adults each carrying a normal amount of baggage each, whilst we were one partially grown adult and one adult weighed down by stupid amounts of luggage (including a bag of feathers, sticks and a large box whose disposal would apparently mean the end of the world). After Bitti stopped to have a panic attack about having left her feather in the hotel room we lost our guides. After standing around for a while cursing the invention of toys, feathers and sticks I noticed a lot of foot traffic was coming from the direction of one corner, so we headed there. Aha, a train track!
The train ride to Bergamo was happily uneventful. Now were not on the usual tourist trail all our fellow travellers seemed to be locals. Lots of teenagers in particular on that ride. We had a 12-minute walk to our B&B according to Google Maps, and one minute into this walk we realised our suitcase had a broken wheel. Explains the squeaky noise we’d been hearing lately! I tried to turn the case so it was leading with a healthy wheel, but the bung wheel just got worse until it was completely split open and the whole case was steering like an average supermarket shopping trolley. Bugger.
We had a little B&B in central Bergamo booked and found it was one of two rooms that a family kept. The breakfast was served in their own dining room because the patio was covered in scaffolding for external window repair work. That was a shame because the patio had a wonderful view of the sunset in the evenings. But their dining rooms was filled with books, the walls covered in art, and the very high ceiling had frescos painted on it, with elaborate cornices to top it off. The host told us his son was studying art at uni in Venice, and the family’s artistic flair was evident in our room and bathroom too, both decorated extremely tastefully.
Our big day in Bergamo was spent in the Citta Alta, up the funicular to the old town. On the way we heard a marching band and went down to have a look. There was some sort of memorial parade going on, as well as a produce fair. Bitti got to do some crafting, which she has been missing every day, and made a paper eggplant. I was noticing that Bergamo was different to other places we’d been so far. The locals are very well dressed, the city is more modern with glass buildings, wider streets and greener spaces. Also, there are a lot more cyclists here, and people walking dogs with children.
There was a HUGE lineup to ride up to Citta Alta, but Bitti bore with it quite well, taking my camera to shoot a series of close ups of people’s feet, bags and her favourite subject: ‘smoke pipes’. The old town is very cute. Long narrow main street with lots of very inviting shops selling clothes, books, art and PASTRIES. So many pastries. We had a bit of a dessert crawl along there, stopping to share a cake at each place. There were a few art shows along the way so we stopped in to browse. Bitti has been really interested in the paintings we find on this trip, I know nothing to tell her about them of course! But she always spends a long time examining them and deciding which is her favourite. She’s desperate for me to buy one, but the idea of lugging a large canvas around with me doesn’t appeal.
The churches, chapels and cathedrals continue to amaze me, and bore Bitti. Some of them appear so plain on the outside, but inside are incredibly extravagant. You just wonder how they got away with exhibiting such wealth in a period when most were so far from well-to-do. But I guess things are the same now, possibly there’s more to distract us from disparity of wealth now.
At the top of the main street Bitti found a playground by accident. It was a good one too! Although she’s been desperate for other kids to play with, she is also too shy to get a game going with strangers, especially when they don’t speak English. We stayed there for a while before heading home again, the long way. Once Bitti has decided it’s time to go home we have to just go. But I tend to take her on a somewhat circuitous route that passes by all the things I wanted to see. ‘Oh yes, this is the way home!’ I’m not lying.
I think our conclusion is that Bergamo is the city of dogs. Every second person seemed to have one on a leash, even in the tourist spots. It’s also a very clean city, compared to what we’ve seen. And they seem much more organised here as well, the public transport was very easy to find and work out, there is even WIFI all over the place so tourists can scan QR codes to get more info about what they’re looking at. Although I found I could not connect …
I was a little sad to leave so soon, but Bitti was itching to get on to Venice, or ‘the water city’ as she’s been calling it. So the next day we packed our new suitcase and headed off for a long train journey that included two transfers. But we didn’t leave our old, broken suitcase behind did we? Oh nO! We brought that with us because someone couldn’t bear to part with it. So now Bitti has her own suitcase that she ALONE is responsible for dragging around. It has nought but a dirty bunny and a collection of sticks in it, but she’s been milking a lot of sympathy from strangers over it. Especially on the staircases.
I feel I should look up the Italian word for ’empty’ and stick it on the side so I don’t look like a monster forcing my poor child to haul a suitcase large enough for her to live in.
Two Little Travellers 