After the Brescia Art Marathon: Bergamo

The Route: Brescia → Bergamo → Brescia Logistics: Regional train from Brescia station to Bergamo, about 50 minutes each way, then a bus or a 20-minute walk to the funicular at the foot of the old city. Marathon Month: March Duration: Day trip

Brescia ──(50 mins regional train)──> Bergamo station ──(bus or walk)──> Funicular ──> Città Alta

Bergamo has two halves and they do not resemble each other. The lower town is a grid of wide Napoleonic-era streets and shopping arcades. The upper town, Città Alta, sits on a hill behind sixteenth-century walls and looks like a different country. On the Monday after the Brescia Art Marathon, when the quads have opinions about stairs, the funicular is the reason this trip works.

March in Bergamo: cool, often grey, and pleasantly empty. Daytime temperatures sit around 10 to 14 °C, with rain possible, and the terraces that fill in summer are mostly shut or half-staffed. Bring a waterproof layer and a scarf.

Trains between Brescia and Bergamo run through the day on the Milan-Venice line. Buy a regional ticket at the machine or on the Trenitalia app and validate it if it is paper. Check trenitalia.com for the Monday timetable, since strikes are common in Italy and are announced in advance.

The day: Città Alta

From Bergamo station, city bus line 1 runs up the main avenue towards the funicular terminus at Viale Vittorio Emanuele II, or it is a flat walk of roughly 20 minutes. The funicular climbs the hill in a couple of minutes and is priced on the city transport scale, so the fare is a couple of euros. Check the current tariff and the operating hours before you go. A second funicular continues to the higher suburb of San Vigilio and is worth skipping if your legs are heavy.

The walls are the main asset. The Venetians built them between 1561 and 1588, and they were added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 2017 with a group of Venetian defences. A walk along the top of the ramparts, or along the path at their base, is about 5 km around the full circuit, paved, with gentle gradients and benches. Do a section rather than the whole thing.

At the centre of the old city is Piazza Vecchia, a small square with a fifteenth-century town hall, the Palazzo della Ragione, and a bell tower, the Torre Civica, known locally as the Campanone. The tower has a lift, and the fee is modest. Check the opening days before you go, as some museums shut on Mondays.

Just off the square is the Colleoni Chapel, a Renaissance mausoleum built for the mercenary captain Bartolomeo Colleoni. Its façade is a patchwork of pink, white and grey marble. Next door is the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore, whose interior is hung with tapestries and gilded plasterwork. The basilica is normally free to enter, though hours and any donation requested vary.

For lunch, the city has a plate of its own. Polenta e osei is a cake of sponge, cream and chocolate topped with marzipan birds, sold in the pastry shops of the old town. The savoury classic is casoncelli, a stuffed pasta with butter and sage. Look for a trattoria on Via Colleoni or in the side streets and check the Monday opening hours, since many restaurants in Italy close one day a week.

If you have the energy after lunch, the Accademia Carrara in the lower town is one of the better regional art collections in Italy. Check its opening days and its ticket price on the museum's own site before planning it.

Getting back

Take the funicular down and walk or bus to the station. Trains to Brescia run through the evening, but check the last departure. If you are flying home from Milan Bergamo airport the next day, staying the night here is an option, since a bus links the centre and the airport in under half an hour. Book a room in the lower town near the station for an easy departure.