Off the A4, 50 km east of Milan. The city of two halves, High Town and Low, is a stepping-stone from the Lombardy plain to the Alps. Parts of the Bergamasque hills, behind the High Town, are inviting but a stern test for the occasional walker.

High Town (Città Alta), lofty and girdled with walls, has narrow winding ways lined with palazzi and a virile old tower rising above blue domes and arches. There are three main art galleries, one with a Botticelli. Add the shady ramparts, breezy piazzas, views of high hills and wide swathes of the ‘waveless plain’ and you may agree with Stendhal: ‘The prettiest place I have ever seen’.

Looking down over the Città Bassa you seem to gaze on a town of a thousand churches. A few are early Renaissance, but there is nothing remarkable about most of them nor in general about this half of Bergamo. One pleasant feature is the Sentierone (‘Big Path’), a chestnut avenue which fills up with life and colour during the evening passeggiata.

Bergamo invented the commedia dell’ arte, from which Punch and Judy is derived. In the plays and puppet shows, Harlequin is said to be modelled on the witty fool of local peasant lore.

The native celebrity is Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848), the operatic composer. Bergamo’s opera theatre has a good reputation and each year hosts a Donizetti music festival, currently in November.