Wednesday, April 8, 2015

Next stop......Bergamo

Bergamo was the last of our trips in Italy. Nestled 2 hours from Venice is a gorgeous city combining both the juxtaposition of new high-end shopping streets with old, as the more rustic town perched at the top of the mountains overlooked the new buildings. We started our morning in a bit of a huff as the weather had progressed negatively in our favour and it deemed that today would be a day of numb fingers (gloves were forgotten amongst suitable jackets) from gripping onto a blowing away and soggy umbrella.
I ran out of black socks....shhhh don't judge ;)
Cultural as my parents are, they decided a 7am lie in was ‘good enough’ and we took the funicular up to the old town. Now half of me is wishing that I could have stayed and browsed the Sephora that had caught my eye in the town, but then, there is always time for a Sephora right (soft internal cry)?
We began looking at the cathedrals and churches of Bergamo, however realised that as this was Easter Sunday, we would most likely be interrupting mass. Therefore, for 10 euros each we were able to buy a day pass which allowed us to view all of the museums in Bergamo for the day. It started with the Museo E Tesoro Della Cattedrale. As the name suggests, the museum revolved around the cathedral that it was situated under. In fact, the museum was the old remnants of the cathedral that had now been built over. It’s always quite interesting to sit there and think, at one point in time, masses of people were coming into this building that now seem so ancient to us.
Our next stop was the Museo Storico Di Bergamo or also the historic museum of Bergamo. This museum focused on the history of Bergamo dating back to the original foundations and explorations made by explorers. I somehow feel reminiscent of being back in my middle school history lesson classes, learning all the names of explorers ships like the Santa Maria. What I found really interesting was that a lot of the museums catered for Italians who were traveling, rather than international tourists. For example, some only had basic or limited information written to give us.  We then stopped off for a coffee break, and seeing as I’m not a coffee person, I chose a hot chocolate and was pleasantly surprised that it turned out to be more of a dessert than a drink!
Of course it wouldn’t be a trip to any city without a visit to the Museo Civico Di Scienze Naturali ‘Enrico Caffi’ – or translated to what I gathered as the Natural History Museum. Now nothing can ever compare, for me at least, to the natural history museum in London. It was interested however how in Bergamo they focused greatly on animals or geographical land rocks/scapes/masses etc specific to Italy rather than showing me 89 different types of Polar bears (there was in fact only one). As we wanted to miss the Sunday evening traffic back to Zurich, we only stopped at a bakery to pick up some goodies for late afternoon tea and then headed back. 
I have to say, half of me was so happy to have gone on this trip, spent time with the family and seen what I was able to, as I am very lucky and privelleged that my parents organized these things. But, can I just say, it’s exhausting! I didn’t feel as if it was a holiday of peace and quiet and rest, it was more a “get up and go” sort of holiday. Luckily for me, I have another holiday next week, I know, I feel as if I’m constantly on holiday. I do wish it was a beach holiday, where I could just lie in the sun and do nothing, but hey – Athens, that’s pretty exciting don’t you think? So does anyone have any tips on things to do whilst I’m there? I just want to make sure I don’t a) miss anything out or b) not reserve tickets for something and end up looking like a cabbage in the museum cough mum cough!




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