Among the mandatory stops in Lower Bergamo there is certainly the Carrara Academy which houses over 1800 paintings (including works by Pisanello, Botticelli, Bellini, Mantegna, Raffaello, Tiepolo and Canaletto) and the Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art (GAMeC ) with works by Morandi, Boccioni, Balla, Casorati, De Chirico and Kandinsky. Heart of Lower Bergamo, the “Sentierone” (actually Piazza Matteotti) is the tree-lined avenue and porticoed on one side by historic buildings such as the Donizetti Theater and the Church of S. Bartolomeo. To the left of Sentierone opens via XX Settembre, an elegant pedestrian street that continues to Piazza Pontida.
Bergamo is still one of the five Italian cities whose historic center has remained completely surrounded by the imposing Venetian walls (declared in 2017 by UNESCO a World Heritage Site): over 6 km of route, a place for romantic walks, the scene of wonderful sunsets, they have guarded the beauties of the Upper Town for more than four centuries and have kept their original appearance almost intact over the centuries. The best known and most fascinating part of this area of the city is certainly Piazza Vecchia (defined by the architect Le Corbusier as the most beautiful square in Europe), which houses the famous Contarini Fountain in the center. Equally important are Piazza Duomo with its wonderful monuments, Piazza della Cittadella and Piazzetta di San Pancrazio, which also houses the sixteenth-century church of the same name and Torre del Gombito, the highest tower in Bergamo.